So the people who were supposed to be staying in “our” apartment tomorrow night cancelled so we get it for another night and don’t have to move to a hostel! Yay!
By the time we got here and got settled in it was around 3 or 4, so we didn’t have a whole lot of time to see things. But we managed to get in a lot anyway! We started with the Pantheon, then walked over to the Piazza del Popolo which had gorgeous views of the city at sunset, then we made our way to the Spanish Steps and then the Trevi Fountain. We sat there for at least half an hour just starting at it. It is absolutely massive.
Today we went to Vatican City/St. Peters, which is also mind-bogglingly massive. Saw the Sistine Chappel; it was almost too much to take in. I’ve seen more nuns, priests, and monks in the past day and a half than I think I ever have in my entire life.
After the Vatican, we went over to the Ancient City to see the Collesium, Palatino Hill, and the Roman Forum. It was getting late so we didn’t really see the Forum, but our ticket is good for 3 days so we can go back. Palatino Hill felt kind of like an abandoned amusment park. It was pretty dirty and unkempt and a lot of it was closed off. And there were no descriptions of anything. But there are still tons of excavations going on so I can see why they wouldn’t want to put too much effort into cleaning it all up when they might just dig a hole there later.
I know people say that Rome is dirty but I haven’t found it to be any worse than the other cities we’ve seen. The subway sucks though. There’s only two lines and they don’t go very far and it is unbelievable crowded. But they probably can’t dig too many tunnels without disturbing something ancient. The bus system seems to be pretty good so that makes up for it. And as large as the city is, a lot of the sights are in walkable distance.
Tomorrow, we’re going to head down to the ancient Appian Road and the cacatombs. Though, we can probably do a lot more now that we don’t need to worry about moving to a new hotel.
Still having trouble uploading photos! And I haven’t had luck finding a place that sells a new memory card either… ah, we’ll see. At least Lauren has her camera!
Ciao for now!
Don’t stress about uploading the photos. It gives us more to look forward to when you get back. Oooo, can we put together a slide show and show it in Room C? That would be fun.
So, it happened, WaMu went bankrupt and was bought by J.P. Morgan Chase. Your money is safe and you should have access to it the same as you always have. It’s the shareholders who were most affected.
http://www.chase.com/welcomewamu/
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2008/09/22/daily35.html
Library life goes on. We miss you dearly though. I had to sick Janet on HR to get them to schedule Noelia’s bilingual exam. They finally scheduled it for today (9/26). I had to take a weird call from someone who dropped off the LA-J list, tell you about that one when you get back. Overall, things are running smoothly. I hope it continues next week!
Jacob and I are looking at a house tomorrow. We got pre-approved for a home loan so now we’re shopping in earnest. I hope we find something nice that’s not in the freaking ghetto. I’ll keep you posted!
Have I mentioned that we all miss you? We love the blog updates. It sounds like you are having so much fun and seeing so many amazing sights. Can’t wait to hear all the stories!