When in Rome...

Ok, I got that joke out of the way. What a breath of fresh air (literally) leaving behind Napoli. Only the flat and occassionally mountaneous countryside lay before us. The train was a few hourse longs to Roma and it was a nice way to ease into what I expected was going to be a pretty packed day. Firt things first wwa to check into the hostel. To our surprise the buses were free (in the sense that no one buys tickets and the drivers do not check). We even asked the driver how much a ticket cost and he just waved us on. We rushed checking in and booked it to Vatican City to meet up with Eric (my other flatmate in London). He and his girlfriend were leaving that day and we wanted to say hi. We said some quick hellos and recounted the past few days and then they took off. First stop: St. Peters Basilica. The whole area was huge. The shots on tv do it no justice. We asaw the window where the Pope gives all his speeches. Looking out into it, it must be somethign else speaking to thousands of people packed in the square. We were pretty hungry so we ehaded out towards the Spanish steps hoping to find a less toursity area to eat. We stopped at a snack bar on the way and I picked up a lemon tart to tide me over...quite delicious. We ended up at a restaurant a couple blocks from the steps and chowed down. Mike and I split a plate of Prosciutto and Mozarella di Bufula. I ended up getting Lasangnetta de psesto which was basically a few lasagna noodles in pesto with basil, garlic and pine nuts. It was good but not very filling. the Spanish steps were pretty neat but a lots of tourists as predicted. I have a feeling this will be a theme in our time in Roma.

On another tangent why do we call cities in other countries different then what the natives do? I was looking at map from Italy and all the American cities are written as we know them. They do not call New York City, Citta di Nuovo York. Yet we call Roma, Rome, and Napoli, Naples. Just something I noticed.

Anyway...we basically did the tourist thing. We saw the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and Piazza Novona. Also stopped at a gelaterria where I had melon, mango, raspberry and blackberry. I could live here easily...but would never be able to leave because I would end up like the half-ton man (if not more). We caught a bus back and planned to hit up the Vatican again and the Colesseum. I also found out the Pope will be giving a speech on Wednesday but we weill be heading to Venice by then. Oh well. Well, onward! To bed that is.

We are almost at the halfway point of our trek. Man the time flies. Take care!

Omar

PS I would write about our second day in Roma but my hands hurt and Andrew needs to write some emails. Hopefully I will be able to update once more but I am keeping vigilant notes. Ciao!