2004
Sunday, July 25 - Roma
Lodging: Hostel Rosen (phone = +39 348 339 3199; email = mcmaxi@hotmail.com).

Roma
We spoke too soon. We had another chaotic evening of stupid attempts at travel. Again, we do not want to talk much of it, but the bus we were supposed to link up with never arrived and did not exist. We spent between three and four hours just trying to get back to the hostel from the Terminal/Laundromat. We finally caught a taxi sometime aroung 3:00 AM who knows were. We walked over 14 miles on Saturday, mostly just in trying to get back to the hostel. Oh - and then when we got back, Erica realized she had lost the keys to the lock on her suitcase. She was just too tired to figure it out - we needed sleep! Save it for Sunday!

Today we tried to sleep in, but Erica had no luck. We finally started moving around at about 11:00 AM... we woke to a rainy day and our spirits were not much better. Erica took her bag down to the front desk - they assured her they could pick the lock no problem - and they did. That just added to her feelings of safety in this place... Gregg keeps saying they should make thievery an Olympic Event - if you are going to do something, you might as well be the best.

Erica started to repack for home when Gregg came in to explain that if we wanted to go on the Vatican Tour we had to leave in 5 minutes. So much for that leisurely project. Erica hussled and ran downstairs to get on the shuttle. Then they canceled the tour. Gregg decided we should go to the Vatican City anyway, no time like the present.

It was raining and Gregg had no raincoat. We were getting wet and Erica was still grumpy. We stood in line to get into the San Pietro in Vaticano (Saint Peters). We went in and stood in awe. What an amazing place! So much marble and statuary. It eludes words.

We then moved off to try and find the Sistine Chapel - to no avail. We did climb a ton of steps in the Cupola - We would not suggest this for anyone bigger than ourselves or anyone afraid of heights! The stairs and everything were SO NARROW and TIGHT! We stood at the top in the rain and looked out over Rome. Then worked more diligently to try and find the exit.

We made it out and down and then went to get some lunch. We were so hungry! We did find a spot - nothing worth mentioning, went to the ATM and then hopped back on the Metro. Erica wanted to get ready to go home.

We plan on entering this blog entry somehow, going to grab some dinner - probably McDonalds or Burger King - we desire good old fast food and, besides, the McDonalds here has free wireless Internet access!

Our roommates appeared and we had some good conversations of common traveling experiences (ours had not been so great the last few days). It was good talking to them as we finished our packing. They prepared for a nap and we decided to leave to grab some food.

After McDonalds and updating entries on the Internet, we made our way back to the hostel. Once back at the hostel, we used the time to work on the DVD. Erica went back to the room before Gregg and stayed up late talking to our roommates some more. After Gregg ran into disk space problems with the DVD project and realized the blank DVD was not really blank, he headed back to the room for sleep. We should have left for the airport instead of sleeping...