Stupid internet place

So it's been a few days, and there's a very good reason for that. Last night, we were at an internet place and I wrote a whole long post, but when I finished, the internet stopped working and it never got posted :-( Sadness! I wasn't very impressed because it had stopped working at around half an hour, I sat there for 15 minutes trying to get it to work and then gave up and they made me pay for an hour! GRRRR...

Anyways, I don't really feel like writing everythign all over again, but I'll give you the main gyst. The rest of Florence was great. We decided to get out of the city and took the bus up to a town called Fiesole. It was beautiful and not crowded at all. On one side of the town we had a view of the mountains with Florence at the bottom and on the other side a view of the Tuscan countryside. Absolutely gorgeous, I LOVED it!

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Rome and found our hostel. It turns out my friend Laura (Turner) is here at the same time, so we've been doing all our sighseeing together, it's been really nice. Last night we walked down to the colosseum. We split an audioguide between the 4 of us and it was well worth it! Mostly because there was a whole long explanation about the games that went on in the colosseum and how it all happened. It was pretty grusome! Although, I think it might be sort of interesting to see hippoppotamuses fighting.

Today we started early with the intention of getting to the sistine chapel before the crowds. However, we got there and there was a line up around the block (literally... and the whole Vatican city is one big block... so I mean SUPER long). We decided that wasn't worth it and went on our way. First stop: St. Peter's basilica. It was nice because since we got up early, we DID get there before the crowds. It's spectacular, especially the square outside with sculptures all the way around (I think of all the apostles). It's hard to explain but it was really really cool. After that we made our way through Rome checking out all the sights. Well, not all of them because there is SO much to see in Rome, but all the ones we had heard of and a few more: a castle, a few piazzas, the Pantheon and Trevi fountain. I threw my 2 coins into the fountain :-) Then we got some lunch in a park and were off again. We saw a sign for a zoo and followed it a while, but didn't really find a zoo, so we gave up. I'll have to find a zoo somewhere else...

From there we headed back to the Vatican Museums (where the Sistine Chapel is), expecting to have to wait in a line for a while, but that was okay because we'd been walking around for about 5 hours by that time. To our surprise, we got there and there was NO line at all!! So in we went and to the Sistine Chapel we headed. We hadn't REALLY intended on looking at the museum too much (except maybe the really cool parts), but the way they have it set up, you basically have to walk through a bunch of the exhibits to get to the Sistine Chapel. That was kind of nice. We didn't spend a LOT of time anywhere, but it was good to get a glimpse of stuff. The most annoying part of it all is the MILLIONS of tour groups everywhere that block the way and make it SO crowded and not fun to get through.

It was all worth it though when we actually got to the Sistine Chapel. Despite the number of people in the room, it was AMAZING. I can't imagine having painted that. Speaking of which, I don't really know a lot about it. I was sort of wondering if Michelangelo painted the WHOLE thing or just the important parts. Does anybody know? And how long did it actually take? I suppose I could look that up if I wanted, but I don't really have time right now.

Anyways, now we're back at the hostel for a couple hours for laundry/internet/napping and then we're meeting Laura again for supper. We get up early again tomorrow to catch the train to Ancona, then we have a 22 hour ferry ride to look forward to... fun. But it'll all be worth it when we get to Santorini and get to spend a few days relaxing and not being in the city and SWIMMING (it's SO hot here in Rome). Plus Tim meets us in Athens, which we're all looking forward to :-)

I don't know what the internet situation will be like in Greece, but I'll do my best!
Talk to you soon!
Kaila