Ancient City

Our flight into Rome was a success and we have now been experiencing this city nonstop for the past two days. The journey began as we weighed our bags in London and realized each of them was over the 40 lb limit for the flight. After cramming my bookbag with about 28 pounds worth of stuff I put on a sweater, vest, and my fleece so I could save on luggage weight. The main at the airport let us slide by with up to 10 pounds of extra stuff in each back so I was extremely happy.

Yesterday we toured the Coliseum, Palatine Hill, and the Forum during the day and that night we took a walking tour to see the Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, and some other sites around Rome. I thought England had tons of old things but I believe Italy beats it by a kilometer. All of our meals have been Italian so pizza, pasta, bread, and gelato have become our staple foods. Honestly, the people here seem more friendly and outgoing than the people in London. There are many more street vendors and people harassing us with goods and I love it. Last night in one of the squares some men came up trying to sell us roses to give to the girls. After giving them some solid excuses for not buying them, we ended up chatting with them for a while and in the end one of the men pitched us his reason why he thought Obama should be the next President.

Today we rose early, but not early enough as the line for the Vatican Museum had begun at 6:45 and it didn’t open until 10:00. There were tons of tour guides vying for our business but of course we gravitated to the American college guy selling a tour. I think as Americans there was just an understood trust with him that wasn’t there with all of the other people selling tours. The guy got us on a great tour and we skipped the line and got to see the magnificent Sistine Chapel and St. Peters. Keith and I went to the top of the dome and saw one of the best landscapes of this trip.

Rome has been a great breath of fresh new air and since we were in London so long, Rome seems a lot smaller and easier to navigate. Tomorrow we’re off to Florence for 4 days, hopefully the weather will be as beautiful as it was today.