Just got in to Rome, but back to the ghost tour- a cloaked woman took us through the old town, and then down to the crypts below the street where the poor people lived. I unfortunately didn't have any 'seeing experiences' but it was fun, and she was a great story teller. The weather changed to rain and cold so it was a perfect atmoshpere for story telling.

On the tour with me was a group of 5 British Airways flight attendants, so the 6 of us had a great time. Since it was a small group the guide was a lot better, told us some extra stories too. Afterwards the 6 of us went to a pub to warm up a bit before I caught the bus to the airport.

On the flight I met a teacher from Aberdeen Scotland, headed over to meet his buddys for a music festival in Roma. Haven't seen him around but it was nice to have some one to talk to. Jeff got in a little after I did, after 17 hrs of transit and 2 hrs of sleep. He met Emily's librarian from St. Ambrose, in Frankfurt, on her way to India, talk about random!

That didn't stop us from seeing the sites though, neither of us wanted to waste any time. We walked to the Trevie Fountain, Spanish steps, and some other old Roman stuff. Friday the hostel organized a dinner for us so we all got to know everyone in the hostel and then we hung out with them the rest of the night.

Saturday we went to the Colosseum, then headed to the Vatican. There we took a kind of expensive but well worth it tour of the museums. We spent 45 minutes in the courtyard of the Vatican museum talking about the Sistene chapel before we even went in--all the symbolism in every picture is amazing.

Michaelangelo actually hated painting it, he tried to escape but was turned in to the Pope. The first 2 paintings were really detailed, because he never saw them from the floor--only from the scaffolding. He DID NOT lie on his back to paint it, he just painted over his head. After a year, the Pope wanted to see it so he made him take it down and that was the first time anyone (including Michaelangelo) saw it from the floor. After that he changed how he did it- bigger people and less busyness. He got a lot faster too, the last panel was done in 6 hours! (the first ones took up to a year)

We were lucky because parts had just been uncovered from cleaning-- it was really really nasty from all the candle soot and incense from hundreds of years.

After that we headed up to the top of St Peters - as a Spanish major I should have realized that piedra means rock, so Peter is the translation of rock of the Church. We went up to the cupola- the walls were curved and so were the stairs, that was cool, 511 in all to get up there. The cathedral was amazing, you have to see the pictures.

We went back to take a nap before going out to eat... our roommates thought we died, they didn't come and wake us up and we slept till 11! we just grabbed a quick pizza and went back to sleep.

We were hoping to see the Pope today but he's in Jordan. We went to Mass in St. Peters this morning, that was awesome, but in Latin so we were lost haha. After Mass we went to the castle, then to a crypt where all the decoration is of their monk's bones... a little creepy. Jeff took some illegal photos so I'll put them up when I can, but picture a skull with shoulderblades below it so it looks like a butterfly, chandeleers of legbones, and door frames made of spinal cords...

Now we're off to Gelato, then a big Italian dinner! At 6:30 am tomorrow we head for Venice!!

Happy Mother's Day!!