Rome

that next morning (still in Paris) we woke up at 430. went throught the tram to the main terminal to get a train. we have free passes from the airport to the main terminal but no one was working info to allow us in. we ended up, after some searching, to find a cab that took us there for decently cheap. we also gave him an extra wine bottle we had and couldn't take on the plane. both of us knocked out immediately after we got on the plane. in 2 hours we landed in rome and were greated by the spanish airlines, vueling if you take it, with a heavy italian accent. oh man, i love this accent. if you hear it when i get back blame the country, not me. so much emotion goes into it, its amazing.
we manuevered our way to the main terminal using trains covered on our eurorail pass, took a bus 7 stops to our exit aand walked into the hotel.

only after we got here did we see it is 4 stars, and it sure does deserve it. the only unfortunate part is it is about 25 min walk from the metro and 45 min-1 hour walk to the colisium, which we have made everyday now. our calves are no longer as big as toothpicks. anyways, that first day we took a bus into town, saw the coliseum from the outside and walked to a major tourist square for dinner. the coliseum is very impressive, huge in size and nice when lit up at night. the people are...intense in general. everyone speaks with their mouth and hands so they seeem intimidating to most foreigners. but in this tourist square we found the light hearted side. after so ridiculously amazing gelato (seriously, it tastes like someone took the fruit you asked for and froze it with some sugar, so good) we sat at a fountain to gaze upon the crowd. there was a thatre group, a smalll guitar band, and what seemed like a flash mob. we then sat down for dinner. the food here if very simple. 3 or 4 ingrediants that are all very fresh and put on a plate. even the pasta was made fresh, or at least thats what they said. we then walked over to a close bar for 1 drink. after some hassel with my simple order of a peroni, they accidentally gave us an extra 28 euro in change, so we didn't argue much after. that was when we began on our hour long walk home. everything outside of thecentral city doesn't seem to be mapped well, but we found it after some effort. good first day, especially because we got there inly 2 hours after our train would have arrived.

also, i was told the people here dress up a lot. most of the locals seem to. they are all into fashion and like to dress well, men and women. it makes it very easy to tell who is italian and who is not, even before they speak. also, the jersey shore persona is not all that prevlent. only in about 3 or 4 couples did i see the super tan/gym rats that they portray. although, when i do see them i def chuckle to myself.

the next morning, the first full day, we decided to take a tour of the roman ruins in the afternoon. before that though, we took the metro to the smallest country in the world, one with only observational status in the UN, the vatican city. 30 minutes by metro at most. it was beautiful. after walking by all the guides outside we went to the main square area and just sat around. in the center we found the public drinking fountains. they constantly run water and you just stick your head into the stream to drink some. we learned it was the same way after the aqueduct system was built, yes, they had running water back to the 50's AD era. then we walked into saint peters basilica. it was absoultely tremendous to see the detail and magnitude of the work completed hundreds of years ago. the pictures of the place are spectacular, which just means that in real life it is even more amazing.
we then walked to the coliseum for the tour of palatino (palaces) hill, the forum, and the coliseum. palatino hill is where all the kings, caears, and bennito mussolouni lived. the guide had this unexpected adulation for mussoleni that most people don't. after that we walked around the ruins of the forum. what i thought was cool, was that about 8 feet under that dug up city there are remnants of roads and buildings from an even older era. but even this area was incredible to appreciate how much they could build such a long time ago. then we walked to the coliseum. this, obviously, being the highlight of the tour. there is so much i could write about each of these, but really experiancing them will provide the proper description. also, my pictures help a little. after that we were exausted, so we decided to head back and get some sleep for the long day ahead of us. that night though, we had dinner in an alley next to us. only a few hours before it was barren and trashed, but at dinner time they make it looks real nice. we decided to try some fancy italian wine. actually, just cheap and local. but it was good! also of note, they charge you for all drinks, including tap water. most of the time drinks are 1/2 the total price of your food, its so much more expensive this way. but at least they don't expect tips.

on our last full day in rome we decided to take a day tour to naples and pompei. i fully expected naples to be a vast countryside with some quaint resteraunts and farms everywhere, sadly i was disappointed. but some of the buildings were very modern and the others had hundreds of years of history behind them, like the rest of europe. it was a quick 1 hour walking tour, so we didn't get to see too much. we then hopped onto the bus to a resteraunt in new pompei. this region is known for creating pasta, margherita pizza, and lemoncielo (their own alcoholic lemon drink). lunch was much better than i expected, consisting of a simple penne pasta, bread, salad, and pork slices. we then took a bus to old pompei, as in the one stuck in 79AD. it was crazy to see everything stuck in place. the scariest/impressive parts were the people they found stuck in place. also, they had numerous pots, chests, a dog, and whatnot in the vault for viewing. also really cool, the rich people alreadys haad running water, a large basilica, and huge lots. overall it was really amazing to see a society that was unchanged for almost two thousand years. it really puts some things in perspective when you see what you have and what was available back then. also, for this trip as a whole, to see what we've come to expect for our everyday life in america versus what is availbable/expected in europe.
that night we were dropped off in front of the coliseum, got some awesome dusk pictures of it, and walked to dinner. we decided to get a good dinner, since it is our last night in rome. i had the free champagne they gave us, some pizza with salami and hot peppers, and an amazing gnocci with zuchinni and mussels. all it was missing was some gelato for desert, but we had no room for it. it'll be consumed today, no worries. after the 45 minute walk home we passed out and got a decent amount of sleep last night. today, we take the train out at 5 to florence for 2 days of exploration.