All Around Italy!

We pretty much did Rome in a day! We took the bus to the main station, which is HUGE. We spent half an hour looking for a map. Then we got some authentic Italian Pizza, which was GREAT! Most of their crusts are really thin, except when you get to the Naples area. And each piece is like a quarter of the Pie! The food in general was AMAZING. (Molly was telling us that the American idea of Italian food is not always the case; it comes from the south of Italy, where they have huge portions and lots of people in the family and stuff. Not all Italian food is like that). Anyway, We went to San Maria Maggiore, a really pretty Church. Then we walked to the Barberini-fontana di Trevi, because Molly suggested the Trevi Fountain. But this wasn't the right one. We found the right one, and walked to it, It was pretty cool, lots of sculptures and stuff. Then we walked to the Pantheon, which was once again disappointing. Not many sculptures. Got some Gelato, which is AMAZING. (Italian Ice Cream, but so much better and richer) We kind of got lost trying to get to the Parliament building, which turned out to be disappointing. Then we decided to go to the Spanish Steps, because Molly suggested it. We were close to the Piazza del Popolo, which was cool, a nice fountain with statues and stuff. Lots of those Living Statues. Also, side note, pretty much every street has a Piazza, a little circle thing with an obelisk in the middle. But most of the obliques have Egyptian hieroglyphs...weird. Anyway, then we went to the Spaninsh Steps, which also weren't that great. Just steps. Woo Hoo. We decided we'd go try to see the Colosseum. Originally them. we were going to wait for Molly, but we figured what the heck, and walked there. On the way, they had this cool building decked out with statues. I guess the Italians call it the Typewriter, it's a modern building. We walked the Dei Font Imperiali, the main road to the Colosseum, and it had statues of the Cesars, which was neat. At the Colosseum, they have people dressed up like Romans to take your pictures with. So we walked all around te Colosseum, but couldn't find out how to get in. Apparently it closed at 4:30, so we figured we'd go with Molly later. Then, wince we still had a few hours to kill, we walked to the St. Giovanni in Laterano Church, which was beautiful. Lots of sculptures of saints, which were really neat. Then we went back to the Colosseum, walked around for a bit, and walked the Circo Massimo, a big grassy area. We took a break, cuz our feet were killing us. Then we walked along the Tevere river, past 9 bridges,m and past this cool castle of St. Angelo, which has three different layers, all built on top of each other. One is medieval, one is renaissance, and one is something else. It was a long way to get to Mollys, but we got there eventually.
(It was really weird being somewhere i don't' speak ANY of the language. I keep wanting to respond in French, that's the first other language that comes to mind. But i can't even ask 'do you speak English', because i dont' now how. But the weather was AMAZING...can't beat it. i think it's the first time i didn't have to wear a coat! and the food is amazing. And the little houses and shops are all Italian design and stuff, so it was a very good fist day. Lots of smokers, though)
When we got to Molly, she took us back to her place, talked a bit, had some pasta, checked e-mail, showered, pretty much relaxed, it was nice. But we had to wake up at 6 to get the train to Pompeii. Slept on the train to Napoli, which was our changeover. Got on a train to Pompeii, but we should have gone to Pompeii escavi, not the city of Pompeii, which we did. So we had to go back a few stops. But we met some nice older Americans, and talked to them and found it together. Ate lunch at a nice little place, more thin-crust pizza. Pompeii wasn't as cool as i was expecting. lots of parts of old stone buildings. Got to see some of the pottery and bodies that were preserved by the ash, that was cool. The city is REALLY big, so we spent a long time walking. We took a break in t a cool Colosseum, really nice view of the city and Mt. Vesouvious, because Pompeii is on a hill. On the way back we split a thick crust pizza, which was good, but salty. Got the train tickets, but it was supposed to leave in 3 minutes, so we were freaking out, and some guy helped us. We thought he worked there, but he wanted euro and stuff. Kinda awkward, because we didn't' really have much change to give him and he got mad. Anyway, we got back to Molly, had more pasta, played chess, and slept.
Next day was a fairly early start. Went to the Colosseum, whcih was cool. Fairly big, and i guess they still have concerts and stuff there. I think there was a jazz concert coming up, beachhead they piped in some Jazz, which was cool, if not the ambiance I was expecting. Colosseum was neat. In the center they had a bunch of particians, i guess, that would have been under the wooden stage, for animals, and to make channels when they had naval battles. Before that, we went up to the Foro Romano and the Palantino, which was cool. You buy tickets for all three, those and the Colosseum, so we skipped the long lines at the Colosseum, and got our tickets there. Then, after the Colosseum, we went to the Vatican. Saw St. Peter's Basilica first, because the line for the he Sistine chapel and musi vaticani was super long. We got to see a tv screen of the pope giving mass, which was cool. But it started raining, while we were in line for the basilica, but it was still nice. The basilica was cool big, lots of neat sculptures and wavy columns. La Pieta was there! Then we tried to se the Cupola, and waited in line for it, but it was like 7 uro, so we changed our minds. But we met a nice family from the states and talked to them in the line, so it was nice. Then we waited in line for the museum, which took an hour, but moved quickly. The musi was cool, lots of sculptures. The Thinker, this famous one with the guy and his sons and the snake..i forget what i's called. Anyway, at the end was the Sistine chapel, which was huge and amazing. Also saw the classical school of Athens, which took up an entire wall and is part of an entire room, that was really neat. After that, our feet really hurt, but we walked over to St. Angelos again, but we couldn't really see it. Then we went back to Mollys, had a nap, and took her out to a neat little Italian restaurant, the falcone. We had this cool fried rice and cheese things, called panzerotti or something like that. Then we got tickets to Florence, which we had to wake up at 4 in the morning for. Napped on the train, and got to Florence fine.Walked past San Lorenzo market, which was really cool. picked up some beaks and stuff for hemp making. Then we found the Duomo, which was beautiful! All green stone and intricate sculptures. Saw the bell tower, which was really big and cool, done in the same style. Then we saw the Bapistry Doors, which were all Gold, and had scence from the bible on them. Really, really neat. Then went into the Leonardo da Vinci museum, which was kinda cool. They had a sculpture garden, which was cool, and had a copy of Michelangelo's David. And some Adonis one, and Hercules, too. We waited in line to see a weird little thing, which was kinda useless, just a lame museum. Then we went down tot eh bridge called Ponte Vecchio, which had Tons of Jewlery, all gold and diamonds and stuff. Then we waited for the Musi D'Uffizi, which was cool. Had lots of famous stuff, some da Vinci, Botticelli (birth of Venus, and La Primavera), Caravvagio, Durer, Michelangelo, raphel, titiann, Rubens, Rembrant...lots of them. We had to miss the Bargello, which had Donatellos David, and the Accademia Dell'Arte, which had Michelangelo's David, but it was ok. We walked back, got a t rain ticket to Pisa. It was freezing, raining, windy, and miserable. But we saw the tower, which was neat, and smaller than i expected. Got some cool pictures. We got tickets to the other train station we were leaving out of, because it wasn't the main station. Then we went to dinner. But i guess we thought the ticket to get to the other station was at 12, when really it was at 11, so we stayed to late at dinner and had to walk in the freezing rain to get to the train station,. Not fun. And the station was really sketchy, and out train was 45 minutes late. We didn't' get out of there until 2:30 in the morning, and the train was so crowded, we had to fight to get any where. We finally found our compartment, but the whole thing sucked. We got in around 6, so we went walking around Venice, which was really neat. Lots of small houses, canals, and by midday there were lots of vendors. I spent too much money, got more beads, a shirt, and mostly food. But at like 8 in the morning, the tourist info place finally opened, and we got a map. We saw the Ponte di Rialto, which is a famous bridge, i guess. Saw San Marco Basilica, which was almost as intricate as the one in Florence. I realized i hadn't needed to delete pictures, silly me. So i don't have as many as i'd like, but i'll get some from Dan. There was also this really tall tower, and a live orchestra playing, which was neat. We were going to go into Duncale Palazza, but we cheaped out and walked around some more. Ate at a kinda good place, and wandered around aimlessly for a bit. Went into a casino, which was interesting. Dan played Blackjack, and broke even, which is good. In order to get in, you had to pay 10euro, but you got a ten euro chip. The kicker is, that chip is non-redeemable, you have to play with it. So dan got out on his first try, then played with mine and got 20 euro, so we each got the ten we put in back. We then walked around some more, ate at various places and had lots of good pastries. Then we left on the train for Bergamo station, which is by Milan. Walked around Bergamo for a bit, it was kinda nice. But the airport SUCKED. I guess they had a policy against sleeping, so every hour or so they'd coe around, wake everyone up, and move us to the other side of the station. Grr... But we got to London, and it was Snowing! Kind cool. Dan had wanted to go into London, but he changed his mind, which was good for me, i didn't want to pay the 25 euro to take the train there and back, because i'd already been to London. We had like an 8 hour layover, and it was Easter. But it was nice, there was this really big window, and we sat underneath it and read in the sunlight, it was great. Then we got back to Shannon, took a bus, and i slept for like 14 hours! took me all day to upload pictures and blogs, so now i'm going to bed.

Pictures are here:

Italy