Rome, Day 2

Buono sera (Good evening) Josh,

Hey there. It is the end of the second day of Rome exploration, and thought I'd shoot you a letter. I slept so well last night after not sleeping for an entire day and a half, and I am almost oriented time-wise here in Italy! This morning we woke up and went down to the hotel breakfast. I'm not sure what I was expecting (Waffle maker, maybe?), but the course was totally different! There was glass china and silver and all sorts of fancy serving dishes, and the food ranged from these little cream cheese puffs to dark chocolate fountain to fruit cocktail. I didn't eat too much because I still didn't feel very well, but it was quite the fancy spread.

After that we headed out on this big bus to our destination, the Vatican. The whole bus ride I just could not get over the fact that the buildings are SO cool looking. There are people eating outside of restaurants everywhere--exactly like a movie scene. And the streets are absolutely crazy. They are tiny and lots of itty-bitty cars and scooters parked every which way on them. Being a driver here would be nuts. When we finally got to the Vatican I was still amazed by the looks of the building. It was just the coolest mix of old-looking stuff right next to fancy flat screened televisions. We went and saw a super cool art gallery, and our tour guide was fabulous. Normally I don't like stopping and looking at every painting in an art gallery because I get bored, so it was nice that the tour guide just told us some really cool stories about several interesting paintings. After all of the build-up to the Sistine Chapel, I was not as impressed as I should have been. There were a billion people trying to look at it though, so it was hard to concentrate on the different scenes.

After we finished that tour we headed to a gift shop nearby where you could buy things and they would send them to be blessed by the Vatican and then delivered to you as soon as possible. Several people had rotaries blessed and got them back as soon as tonight. There was a wall of shot glasses in the gift shop, but I'm not sure you could get those blessed. Maybe if you call them communion cups?

We grabbed food at this delicious cafe nearby and I got a sandwich with the most delicious bread before heading to the Castle of the Angels with the group. It was this gorgeous castle with the most beautiful views of Rome. You could go up to the top and walk around the whole circle to see the entire city. They also had the prisons of the castle open for visitors to see which is not a usual thing for Rome. Normally the prisons are closed, but they opened them for a short period of time and I got to see them! Let's just say, I'm glad I'm not a prisoner.

After that we headed back to the hotel for a break, but I found out they still cannot find my luggage that was lost, so I had to go see if I could find any clothes to wear for tomorrow. Everything was super expensive though, so I am just going to mooch off of the kind people on the trip with me :)

The last trip of the day was this night tour around Rome. We saw a ton of huge monuments lit up by lights, Christmas lights were on everywhere, and people were out and about. It was gorgeous. We stopped in this square to grab dinner, and this guy basically counted the number of people in our group and told us he got a table for us, so we were like 'umm...okay...I guess we will eat there' and the food ended up being delicious! In Italy they include the tax into the food prices, I guess. So, it makes you feel better when you have to pay because it is never an additional percentage to what it says--convenient. Seems like an idea shops in America should adopt :)

A random story--I went to the bathroom with another girl on the trip and it was incredibly creepy. Restrooms in Italy are odd anyway because apparently they don't like seats, they are co-ed, and sometimes you tip/pay a bathroom attendant to use a restroom. Plus, there are like a million buttons to flush. The first time I used the restroom, I went with another person on the trip and we actually paid two euros (approx. three dollars) to pee. We had no idea why people were throwing money in the basket by the man distributing paper towels, so we WAY overpaid. Anyway, so we went to this incredibly creepy bathroom and it had a single lightbulb that was green and flickering back in this dungeon-like room. Seriously the creepiest thing ever.

At the end of the bus tour we went to see the Vatican at nighttime and we were taking pictures when our guide, Kostas, pointed out that the lights were on in two of the windows. Apparently that means that the Pope is home and that he is in those rooms. So, of course, I yelled 'HI POPE' and waved frantically. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm the coolest Murray State student ever. Also, now I can tell all those Facebook people that said to 'say hi to the pope' that I actually did!

Well, that is the end of the day. Sorry my letters are such a random assortment of business of what I am doing. I wish I had more time to discuss my thoughts. Maybe you can think about a few of them before the next time I write? Here they are: (1) For those who live in Italy, how would it feel to wake up and be surrounded by this much history every day? (2) If my house had fancy designs and columns on it, would that mean I could let it get dirty and it would still look beautiful? I mean, it works on ancient roman buildings... (3) How many people can make it through such an entirely long, detailed and boring post of mine? If you made it through...a woot woot for you!

Ciao (goodbye),

Maddie

P.S. Still working on the picture problem