Roman

Ah, wow, another long, busy day in Rome. Got up today around 7, then went down for breakfast a bit after 8. The breakfast buffet was awesome and I had eggs and sausage for the first time in forever! :) After breakfast, as a group we headed out around 9. We took the subway over to Vatican City to see that. The subways here are crazy. The cars are all beat up with grafitti all over them and stuff and they come and go as they please. The doors will slam wheter you're in their way or not, and they look like they hurt. They drive them like maniacs too, accelerating like a BMW and then jabbing frequently on the breaks. They are quite the experience, to say the least! Anyhow, so we got to the Vatican, but the line for the museum was ridiculous, so hopefully we'll be able to come back Monday to see that. We got to go around the basilica and stuff that was there though. I think I heard that it was the largest church in the world, and it probably is. It was really, really honkin' big. :P Also saw the tombs of a ton of popes down in the basement. Cool to see, then everybody kinda split up a little before noon and Liz and I somehow lost everybody in the tombs, so we hit the streets of Rome together for the afternoon. First thing we did was go in a very, very old castle which was neat and had some nice views from the top of it. Then, stopped for a cheap pizza for lunch which was decent. Went to a crazy market area and window-shopped for the most part. Then, just kinda travelled about the city seeing ruins, churches, monuments, etc. They're everywhere. We saw the Pantheon, which was really neat and we saw this area of ruins in the middle of town that was excavated from underneath other things. It was cool, but the coolest part was that there were literally, probably like 30 or 40 cats in there, if not more. And they were all heathly and playful and beautiful. I guess they feed them and take care of them and all the city cats just come down there to play and hang out. It was really fun, and Liz especially enjoyed them. :) Around 6, we got near the hotel and stopped for some good ice cream together. :D Then changed and dinner was at 7 and it was very good. After dinner, a large group of us rushed to the metro and then off to an opera at a church across town. The opera was pretty cool. It was hard to see from where we were at and pretty cold in the church, but the music and singing were beautiful. Plus, I was just stoked to see a real Italian opera in Italy. :) It lasted about 3 hours and we got out of there around 11:30. Tried to get back on the metro, but it was closed, so we had to find our way back on the freezing cold and horrible-driver-infested streets of Rome. It was an interesting walk and we got back almost an hour later. Liz had trouble getting her key from the front desk, so I spent some time waiting and chatting with her and then finally got back to my room around 1am. I'm so tired!!