So this may be the biggest sets of blog posts ever when i'm done with it. Since internet here has been iffy at best, and can cost as much as a good meal for an hour, i could not keep up as much as i would have liked. so what i'm doing now, nearing the end of our trip is i'll condense it into short blurbs for each day/event with the help of Dani's well written notes in her conventional journal and enlarge them when possible. so this post should keep getting bigger until i have filled in all the details. so here we go:
Day 9
heading to the train station to go to rome we met some fellow londoners (what are the odds!)They gave us some advice on things to see in rome, which turned out very helpful even tho i've been there 3 other times...
We arrived in rome late, as all trains it italy are late, and after metros and busses we made it to our hostel which was a campground just on the outskirts of the city. The place was pretty nice, we got our own room and bathroom. It even had a pool and 'jaccuzies'which to them are round tubs with cold water jets...not my idea of a good hot tub...oh well cant complain.
Day 10
ROME! We bussed and metro-ed downtown to check out the old sites, including the Trevi fountain, old ruins, tomb of the unknown soldier and the collesium. My fav part was thanks to the Londoners we met the day before. As they told us to do, we followed the buildings to the left of the unknown soldiers tomb and eventually found a small door that led downstairs into an old cell. turns out this cell is where the apostle Paul was supposedly held. The cell is small and very few people seemed to know about it since it was pretty empty when we were there. Rumor has it that Paul baptised fellow prisoners with a small stream that went through the cell and that the water actually glowed. There's a small mural in the cell showing this event, but besides that it doesn't tell anything except a list of names of who was in the cell, including Paul.
Cool eh!
Day 11
The Vatican. Bussing into the city, we walked into see the vatican's huge walls that surround the city. We didn't know where to go there, so we saw this huge line (as in thousands of people), and decided our best bet would be to join the line and hope we get somewhere. Thankfully it went really fast and we got into St.Peter's Bastilia. Well actually it went UNDER the bastilia to the tombes of the popes. YOu'd think with all the money that the vatican has it wouldn't have to bury the popes in the basement eh! haha. What was really weird was that when we went past the most recient tomb (John Paul?) people were actually praying to the dead pope, leaving gifts and more. NOw i'm not big into catholic things, but thats just weird people. We also saw the tomb for St.Peter (from a distance, since no one is allowed in). We then went into the church itself, which is amazing in terms of architecture and design. I also think that if they auctioned off everything in there they could pretty much end world poverty. But they're too greedy i guess. God only likes really expensive churches, right?
We then decided to get in another huge line and climbed up to the top of the bastilia which was about 550 stairs, some that led through tunnels that were slanted on an angle, so that you had to walk crooked. Came with a great view of the upper roof of the church (painted by michelangelo) and a good overview of the whole city.
Our plan then was to go see the sistine chapel, but after walking all the way to it, we found that it just randomly closed for the day (sign said it closed one day a month and it just happened to be our day there...blah). On the plus side we found this amazing gelato place were we got 6 scoops of the icecream. not bad.
Day 12 and 13
We took a train to our next town, a place called Filgine or something like that. We had booked this campground place that we knew nothing about but it was in the Tuscan area, so we figured it would be good. We got there at about 2:30 and got a shuttle to the campgrounds, on top of a mountain, which we found out happened to be a resort. (but we only payed $13 per night!) IT had 6 pools, tennis, soccer, restaurants, market and more. It was basically like a 4 star camping resort. we decided it would be a good place to relax for a few days (by the pool of course). We also noticed that it just happened to be the weekend that the European chapter of the H.O.G. Club (Harley-Davidon Owners Group), got together at that resort, meaning lots of bikes and noise! Was very interesting.
Day 14
Florence. Took an early train to florence where we left our bags and took another train to Pisa. Walking through the town we found the leaning tower (very cool) and the historic area. After taking the normal 'holding up the leaning tower' photos and wandered around for a bit, we then headed back to the train and back to Florence and a bus to our hostel.
Day 15
Walked through florence. Our hostel is on top of a hill overlooking the city and is right beside a lookout with a huge statue of David on it. We wandered around the streets and churches for about 8 hours. Didn't see the original David...most museums were closed that day. oh well.
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