buena sera! molto buene, grazie!

That is the only Italian I can say with any kind of confidence. I just spent the past three and a half days in Rome with my dad, and was amazed at how little you actually need to know-everyone, including our waiters and the street vendors, immediately switched to English as soon as we opened our mouths. It's been wonderful, but now that we've left Rome and are on our way up the Mediterranian coast, I'm afraid we might not be able to communicate so easily. We have a phrase book, and I spent part of our drive trying to teach myself pertinent phrases, such as "Do you have any vacancies? How much for one nights' stay?" and the very important, "Danger! Do not enter!"
But I am getting a little ahead of myself...I just spent three days in Rome! It is incredible just how ooooold the city is. Everything is old. The cobblestone streets, the fountains you run into around every corner, the buildings where there are hundreds of pizzerias and restaurants and stores-instead of tearing things down and builing a new store to fit their needs, people have instead adopted their needs to fit the thousand-year old buildings. It's pretty cool to be walking down a tiny alley surrounded by these gorgeous buildings, and see how the tiny front rooms are the stores and apartments are above. And then the next moment, to have to slam yourself flat against the stone wall as one of the city's tiny Smartcars or motorcycles roars (well, not really roars. Smartcars can't really roar...buzzes?) toward you at breakneck speed with ZERO regard for the fact that you are there. One thingI would not be able to do in Rome is keep up with the crazy traffic and tiny winding streets. Seriously, an alley you would not expect to fit three people walking abreast can fit an entire taxi, and does.
The hotel we were staying in (Hotel Nazzione) was literally a thirty-second walk from the Trevi Fountain, and was surrounded by little alleys filled with street artists, delicious pizzerias, and cafés. We spent a lot of time the day we arrived just wandering around Rome, getting aquainted with the city a little and fighting the desperate urge to curl up in a ball and fall asleep right on the street. Jet lag is no joke. However, despite our weariness, we had agreat first day, seeing the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and The Ministry of Culture by complete accident. We found a delicious pizzeria, also accidentally, and had our first real Italian pizzas. We were in bed by 8, and slept til 11 the next morning without waking up once.
The next day, we headed to the Coliseum, passing several impressive archaeological sites displaying ruins from ancient Rome on the way. A little time was spent walking the outside of the Coliseum, but we put off the tour of the inside, as we wanted to go see the Catacombs de San Callisto on the Appian Way. They aren't within walking distance like everything else in Rome is, so we found a tour bus that would take us. It was raining a little, and it was pretty chilly, so we thought that underground catacombs were a pretty good idea. Little did we know that the bus we got tickets for was entirely open, with only one row of seats under any kind of roof. Luckily, we got that row (really, we had practialcally the entire bus to ourselves, as everyone else in Rome knew not to ride the only entirely open bus in the middle of JAnuary) and it was not an unpleasant ride. WE took a tour of the catacombs with an Indian guide who spoke fairly understandable English, and it was very interesting to hear the history of how the Chrisitans started using catacombs to protect their dead from the Romans Empire, and just kept going deeper and deeper down as the years wore on. I forget teh exact number buried there, but it was something like 500 thousand in just that one catacomb. There are about 60 different catacombs around Rome, witht the one we visited being the largest. there had been a variety of priests, saints, and martyrs buried there as well, but after the Goths had broken open every single tomb int he whole catacomb looking for treasure, thier bodies were moved to the Vatican for reburial.
That night, we decided to go out for a real Italian meal, so we went to one of the numerous restaruants around our hotel and ate outside. It was probably about 40 degrees, but they had these massive heaters that put out enough heat to make us just as comfortable as if we were outside. We ended up talking to the German couple sitting beside us, as well as the two guys to our right-one of them had graduated from Grove City college three years previously, and had been working in Paris for the past 3 years, so I had a few questions for him :)
The following morning, we got up at a much more reasonable hour and headed back to the Coliseum for a tour of the inside. Dad looooved this part-very historical, and therefore right up his alley. It was cool for me too, standing in a structure that has been around since Biblical times is pretty humbling. We took a guided tour, and learned some o fthe details about how it was used and why it is in its' current condition. The Romans, after it had fallen out of use, had actually takenall of the marble and a lot of the metal from the Coliseum to make weapons and the Vatican, and so that is part of the reason it is in ruin. Obviously, it's super old, so that had a little to do with it as well...
AFter our tour, and alittle wandering around inside on our own, we walked across the city to the VAtican. It was getting later in the afternoon, and so we only had enough time to go through Saint Peter's. We started at the top, climbing hundreds of stairs to get to the balisica and see the cieling up close. I took some pictures, both from the basilica looking down, and the n from the gound looking up, and will go back and post them when I get a chance to download them all. Dad walked up even further to the cupola at ethe top of the basilica, and got to look out over the whole city of Rome. I started up, but as the stairs got steeper my knees got weaker, and I quickly turned around oand opted out. Heights just aren't my thing, my knees always betray me right before my stomach drops into my toes :)
It was too late that tday to see the musems and the Sistene Chapel, so we walked alllllt he way back across the city for dnner. Byt his poitn, our feet were bruised and tired from three days of cobblestones and a lot more walking than either of us was used to, so it felt great to just sit for a little whiel before going out for our dinner. WE walked over to the Spanish steps, and caught the tail end of a French mass being given inside the church at the top. All teh churches we had wandered into in the past few days had been incredibly ornate and beautiful, and this one was no exception. It was a beautiful experience to hear the choir echoing throughout the silent cathedral and to et to look around at the incredible artwork on the cieling, the walls, the floor, the doors, the alter...you get the drift. Not an inch went undecorated, a theme I have noticed in most of the buildings in Rome
This morning, we got up and checked out of our hotel, then headed back to the Vatican to pick up our rental car nearby and to see the Sistene Chapel. We left our bags in our rental, and walked what felt like ten miles to the entrance of the Museo Vaticani. Once inside, I aws once again blown away by the splendor. There must have been ten thousand peices of sculpture, not to mentino the incredible murals on the walls and ceiling and the marblework on the floors. The museum just never ended, it justkept opening into another room of artwork, tapestries, sculptures...and then we finished in the Sistene Chapel. The painted wall hangings and painted columns looked so real I had to go right up to them to see the were indeed 2d paintings, not real cloth and marble. the whole thing was so vibrant it almost looked 3d
WE stopped for the best pasta we've had yet on our way back to our car-capellini with tomato and basil sauce. The simplest thing on the menu, but unbelieveably good.
Our drive out of town was a little nerve-wracking, with DAd at teh wheel braving the crazy Roman drivers and me manning the map-not my strenth. However, we made it, and had a nice little 2 hour drive out of the city along the Mediterrainian. (sp?) wetried to stop in a littl etown right on the coast, but quickly found that it must be strictly a summer residential area, and so returned to the main road to escape the VERY windy VERY narrow lanes. WE stopped and asked a gas station attendant for the nearest hotel, and somehow managed to make out a name of a hotel down the road amid his rapid and unintelligible (to us at least) Italian.
So here I am, typing on their computer about the past four days, and I cannot believe how much I have already seen . We're going to stick our toes in the Mediterranian tomorrow, no matter howcold it is.
I'll do my best to post again soon, but I simply cannot type anymore now. My fingers are numb, hence the increase in typos as this got longer.
Until next time|!