Rome and Naples

I know you're probably tired of the excuses, but the internet on this thing is completely broken so I am entirely at the mercy of hostel computers. Which you often have to pay for. Technology gets a lot more complicated on the road.

Anyway, I never updated you about Rome or Naples so here it is.

We got in from Perugia in the early evening and, for once, found our hostel with no issues. It turned out to be an apartment that the guy had just turned into a hostel (is that even legal?). Hostel pros: free nightly dinner! Hostel cons: too small, gross bathrooms, lockout from 11 to 4 meaning we weren't allowed home during the hottest part if the day.

Our first night we went to an Irish pub with some guys from Belfast who were staying at the hostel. The pub featured expensive drinks and dreadful karaoke but it was still a nice night, especially the walk home which included wandering past the Colluseum and the Roman forum. Makes night walks at home seem so very lame.

We spent our first full day checking out the big sights. We started at Trevi fountain then went to the Pantheon, the Vatican, and the Spanish steps. We didn't go in the Vatican museum or St. Peter's because it was really hot and the line was huge. I know, we are bad tourists. But we saw the piazza. So that counts for something right? The next day we did a church tour of Rome. This mostly meant that we popped into a bunch of cathedrals and took blurry pictures. We did get to see Santa Teresa in Ecstasy, a famous sculpture, and Santa Maria Maggiore, my favorite cathedral/basillica so that was cool. As we got hotter ad more tired and discovered that 4 was a long way off, we decided a nice air conditioned movie theater was exactly what we needed. Unfortunately, everything in Italy is closed in August, including most theaters. No movies for us, but it did give us something to do while we waited ti be let back in.

That night, our last in Rome, we passed on hostel dinner and headed to a restaurant that my family and I frequented when we were here in December. It was really different because it was much more crowded than it had been during the winter but the food was still delicious! We didn't have Enrico, our lovely waiter from before, but the one we had was great and gave us extra wine, extra tiramisu, and free limoncello because we moved tables to let a big group sit. Thanks mom and dad for our first real meal in Italy!

We headed to Naples the next day. Not much to tell since, despite our best intentions to check out Capri, we ended up spending most of the time eating pizza and gelato and wandering until we were too hot and then going to the hostel and watching Prison Break (which is awesome). Then we headed to Sorrento for a few days of beaches and ancient ruins. No internet here, we are at an internet cafe, so more when we reach Greece!

Me and the Colleseum

The you-are-too-naked-to-enter-this-church police. Seriously, their whole job is to make you buy wrap things if they think you're clothes are inappropriate. Luckily we came prepared with exra shirts.

Both of us in front of St. Peter's

Trevi Fountain

Packing. This picture makes me look really deformed. I promise I havenot become more deformed since leaving the states.