It's All Relative

Roma Italia

Greetings from Rome. We arrived yesterday around 8:00pm and spent most of the day sightseeing. We took the metro over to the Vatican (side note about the metro: we were warned by our friends who have been to Rome that getting around is so hard....ok, we must be elite travelers because cruising around Rome for us was cake. The Metro here is so simple and made our day a lot less stressful) The Vatican was so rad. It's huge and I didn't know there was so much to see here. The line was ridiculously long, about an hour and a half to get in. And it began to rain a little so we bought some umbrellas from this British guy and huddled together as we waited in line. But the wait was worth it. We went all throughout the museums, looking at all the beautiful paintings and sculptures that are strewn throughout the Vatican. We found our way to the Sistine Chapel which is amazing. It's so big...I had no diea just how huge it was. I seriously just gapped at how real the paintings were. There were so many people in there , but it stayed pretty quiet. Some of these images, I just couldn't stop staring at. Especially the center portion, which portrays the Creation. It is unreal how the figures pop out and come to life. Ahhh...I got the chills. So beautiful. After we came out of the Sistine Chapel, we went to see Pope JP II tomb. That was crazy because you pass by all these old Popes tombs as well. It's almost creepy. JP's (thats what we call him) tomb is all lit up with tons and flowers, letters, and pictures thrown about it. It was pretty cool. I kinda wanted to stay for Mass, but it was a long line and I am not Catholic so I decided against it.
After JP's tomb, we went out to St. Peter's square- where millions of Catholics gather to come see the Pope come out of the Vatican and wave about. That was cool too. Really big as well.
Next we walked to the Colosseum. It was amazing. You can't really see it until you turn this corner and than bam...there it is. It is so huge. I mean, it used to fit like hundreds of thousands of people. We walked around and just pictured what it must have been like to be there during that time and what the Colosseum must have looked like in its prime. The whole floor of it has been stripped away, revealing all the underground tunnels that Romans used to keep the animals they used during the Gladiator fights. It was so cool, almost haunting to be there. You could almost hear the cheering that must have gone on there. It made me want to watch Gladiator real bad....

We then ate lunch at this cute little pasta and pizzaria near the Pantheon. I had bruchetta bianca with is basically toast with garlic and olive oil. And I had a tomato bruchetta too. I also had a pizza....and a coke.......and white truffle gelato for dessert....but I WAS HUNGRY!!! I know my family is probably laughing at me but seriously, I wa starving. All that walking really works up an appetite.

After a quick run through the Pantheon, we went back to our hotel and crashed. We are going to try and go out tonight, maybe to a club, but we'll see. We always say we will go out but then the time comes and we are beat. But I really want to because let me tell you, there are some mighty hot pieces of Italian babe here and I want one. Seriously, I have never seen so many hot guys in one place before. I think I need to move to Italy because clearly Utah is not working out so much for me.

Well, that's about it for now. Tomorrow we go to Venice and then on to Florence. I will miss Rome though. It's beautiful.

Ciao!