Rome

Hello everyone,

We are in an internet cafe in Athens and thought it would be a great time to do an entry on our time in Rome.

We spent four nights in Rome and three days. We stayed in a little apartment which had a terrace between the bedroom and the kitchen/washroom area. It had an amazing view of the San Giovanni Basilica, (known to be one of the oldest churches in Rome). It was a great place to stay except for 2 minor details. Detail 1: the shower smelt like sewer when it got hot out. Detail 2: I had to run across the terrace in my underwear in the middle of the night to take a pee. Other than that, the apartment was wonderful. Everynight I cooked dinner and Lance would read a book in the sun and we would drink some wine and relax. It was very nice....especially in contrast to the rest of Rome which we found to be very busy, hectic and, hate to say it but, dirty. There was graffiti everywhere, even on some of the old ruins. Kinda sad really.

When we were in Rome we checked out all the major sites: the Colosseum, the Forum, Capitol Hill, Palatine Hill, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps.....yeah, we did lots. Oh, and we shopped and I bought a super cute hand bag. Oh, and a headband. LOL. Bad Amy!

Oh, some more "dirt" on Rome.....I got shit on by a bird, Lance almost got into a fight with some Roman punks who mocked us, the lady who cleaned the toilets at the Vatican treated me like I was mentally retarded, Lance hit his head in the apartment because the roof was too low about 5 times, and remember the shower smelt like turd. All that aside, we enjoyed seeing the sites. But we are still grateful to now be in Athens :)

We head out on our cruise tomorrow which is very exciting. We have 4 nights on the cruise ship before we dock back in Athens. We are then going to try and make our way out to Astros to see the Gavros'. We cant wait!!!! And as a bonus, tonight we get to go out for some Greek food with Greek entertainment (dancing and singing). Lance has told me he feels like drinking, so it might be his turn to sleep beside the toilet.

Alright, that is it for now. Not sure the next time we will post, but whenever we get a chance we will. Take care and talk to you guys soon.

Love Amy and Lance

PS) Eunice and Dorothy....you guys are the best mommy's in the whole world. Happy Belated Mother's Day. We are sorry we forgot to call you guys. We were thinking of you and hope you guys are doing well. Love you.


Here is a shot of the apartment terrace and Lance enjoying one of Amy's wonderful meals. (I cooked every night.) And Lance says to make sure I tell everyone he appreciated it.

Here is an artsy fartsy pic Lance took of the Colosseum. He did a pretty good job I think, but maybe I am biased. The Colosseum was only a 15 minute walk from our apartment. The day we visited it we made sure we got there early to avoid the line up we had seen the day before that must have been over an hour or so just to get in.



A picture of inside the Colosseum. This shows the floor that had been reconstructed to give an idea of what the original floor looked like. You can see below there are ruins of the pathways and holding areas under the arena. This is where they stored equipment, animals and those who were to fight in matches against the animals or gladiators. Gladiators would fight in the arena against whatever popped up infront of them (there was an elevator which brought up various animals and the Gladiators wouldn't know what/when/ or from where it would be coming). It is 2000 years old and could hold 50 000 spectators.The Vatican City. No, we didn't see the Pope Mobile.

Inside St.Peter's Basilica at around 7:30 in the morning. We went early to avoid the crowds, and it was worth it. However, the plan did not work for the Vatican Museum....we arrived at 8:15am and waited in line for 1.5 hours before giving up. We had only moved about 50 yards in that hour and a half and the entrance was still two blocks away.
Another shot inside of St.Peters. Good to know that all the money that church-goers donate goes to good use....sorry, too cynical. It was really beautiful inside, but Lance and I couldnt help to be a little wary of at what cost such a building and such an institution is built. But that is for another day I suppose.Michelangelo's Pieta. I really did like this piece. It is of Mary holding Jesus' dead body. Michelangelo was only 24 when he made it. When I was 24 I made some stellar doodlings in my school scribblers.