i'm going to talk just a tad about rome, as thats where we were yesterday. up EARLY, for about the millionth time in a row, to catch the early train into rome. not too bad, we had reservations so no having to stand like sardines for 3 hours like we did on the way FROM rome.
get there. head to the vatican museum, home of the sistine chapel. the line is seeeeriously a mile long, outside the door, but was moving really fast. little did we know, that pretty much the whole museum is a giant line, since the sistine chapel is at the very end. like a river of people. a million degrees. ick. and in my opinion, the sistine chapel was a let down. i've seen it in picutres a million times, seeing it with 10,000 of my closest, sweatiest touristy friends was a non-event in my mind. but its good to say i've seen it i guess.
st peters on the other hand was WONDERFUL. in my mind (and aparently in those of the catholics), the bigger the church the better. and wow, its big. there's marks on the floor indicating where other large churches would fit inside of it. we somehow manage to climb the 600 or so steps to the top, to look out over rome. soooo great.
rome at night was sooo much better. still crowded, but a more subdued crowd, just kind of strolling. not the absolute mobs that occured during the day.
left dad and julie this morning, stopped by the coloseum and the roman forum before i had to catch my train to SIENA!!!
despite getting completely lost, seeing how i had no map, and only had a bus number to get where i was going (ended up circling on the bus back to the train station, and walking the oh, 5 miles or so it was to the hostel).. oh well. as i was saying, despite that, first impression of siena mathces everything i've read: its superb. the old downtown area is completely cut off from traffic, only pedestrians. and its not turists, but rather italians. college kids most of them. and the shops aren't those crappy junk ones, but nice varied shops. i've got all day tomorrow to explore, and i'm quite excited.
thats all for now, gotta make sure to catch the bus, the hostel locks me out at midnight, and that would be bad. probably should eat something as well.
i've posted a few more pictures, it didn't work too well. one of these days i'm going to get them all up.. i SWEAR.