Day 14 (6/18/11): We woke up this morning bright and early to take full advantage of our short time in Firenze! Our hostel had a nice little breakfast table of treats available to us, which helped ease us into the morning since we were all very tired from our long days of exploration :o) Our first stop of the day was at the San Lorenzo duomo. It was really cool to stop in! Lots of paintings and works by Michelangelo. We stopped in a corner to listen to an a...

Day 13 (6/17/11): This morning Jackie and I decided to do separate things. She needed to organize herself for the weekend, and I wanted to go sightseeing a bit more. I took out my Rome book and decided to do one of the walking tours near the Spanish Steps. Once I arrived there, I went straight to Cafe Greco for a caffe lungho and a brioche - yum!! The coffee there was GOOD! Cafe Greco is apparently a famous bar where writers and musicians such as Keats, Goe...

Day 12 (6/16/11): After going to sleep around 5:00 a.m. (yikes!), we were quite confused when the alarm went off at 7:30 a.m.! After hitting snooze a few times, we got up around 9:30 to head to Ostia beach for the day! Our first stop, of course, was for a cappuccino (for Jackie) and espresso (for me) and then we headed to the Metro. It was another gorgeous day in Rome! After taking two metros and walkiong a few blocks, we finally arrived at the beach... but ...

Day 11 (6/15/11): We woke up early this morning and headed back to the Vatican! This time, we planned to attend the outdoor Mass in St. Peter's Square. We thought we were running late and that the Mass started at 9:00 a.m. It was about 9:20 a.m. and luckily the Mass did not start until about 10:30 a.m. so we got actual seats in the middle of the crowd! We noticed the crowd was broken into two seating sections and there was a space between them for people to ...

Day 10 (6/14/11): Woke up this morning and immediately washed our bedding since Jackie so kindly bought washing detergent the night before! We are not quite sure it was washed when we arrived, eek. Then we got ready and went off to go see the Vatican Museum. There was a bit of a line when we arrived but it moved quickly, so we only waited maybe 40 minutes. We were able to use our student ID's and received have off admission, too! That's always a plus :o) Th...