Friday, September 14, 2007

Roma - Part Due

Another installment from Roma!

Wednesday - We were in Florence last night. It's much smaller than Rome, in every respect. The sidewalks were tiny, but just as crowded as those in Rome. We got to see Michelangelo's David. It was amazing. The little museum goons were all over yelling 'no foto!' but we snuck a few. We'll post them when we get back. Our hostel there was really nice, the people who run it were very friendly. Because Florence is smaller, there are more ammenities downtown, such as internet cafe's, laundromats and supermarkets. The SuperMercadi's are awesome! A sandwich shop charges 2,50 euro for a bottle of water - at the Mercadi, ,70 eurocent!

Thursday - We got a late start, but that was okay. We went to Palazzo Medici Ricard and saw this little chapel that is completely covered in Fresco's painted by Benozzo Gozzoli in 1459, they were breathtaking. The chapel had no windows and we could't figure out how the artist could see to paint such amazing detail back then. Even the backround scenery had really vivid details. The no foto goons were too good in the small chapel and we couldn't get pictures, but I'm sure you could find it online. The frescos are called Journey of the Magi. In the Palazzo was also a ball room of sorts with a ceiling that words can't describe. Picture were allowed here so we took a ton and some video. After the Palazzo we went shopping, yay! Florence is known for it's leather and fine jewelry. To the right is a picture Chris took on his phone of me shopping. We bought a belt for Chris and some souvenires for the moms and me. We also bought a few other things. Then back to Roma. That night we hooked up with a friend of The Boys (doug + james), Fabio - who was born in Rome. He has friends from Cancun in town. It was a 17 year old girl Coral, her mother Andrea, her uncle Dannyboy along with Fabio's friend Maximilliano - Max for short :). We all went to dinner, which Fabio sneakily paid for (he was extremely considerate and gracious), then got some of the best coffee ever. They have secret techniques that they are very serious about, they cover their coffee makers so you can't wathc! John, if you want us to buy you some, e-mail Chris's mac account and we will! Then went on a wild goose hunt for a Party Village that sets up in the summer, it sounds like an outdoor night time festival. We never found the party (though we did find out from a hooker (a shim if you will) that it's only on Fri/Sat nights so that's why we couldn't find it), but we did get to see a lot of Rome we wouldn't have otherwise. It was nice to be in a car vs. walking! The cars are so INSANLY small! Max's car, which is smaller than a Mini Cooper, actually had 4 doors, when they opened the back doors Chris's jaw dropped, we naturally had assumed it was a two door.

Friday
- We're sitting here waiting for our laundry to finish. 14 Euro for two small loads, yikes! But you have to have clean undies, right? We've seen most of the typical Roman sites and we're both kind of feeling like we should be going home soon you know? Like it's been the typical vacation length and our bodies are assuming it's almost over. But we still have almost a week! We plan to do lots of people watching and we're going to hit some of the lesser known sites, possibly hit the beach as well we'll see. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow night we'll have dinner with Fabio and friends again and find the Party Village. Monday we plan to go to the Vatican with the really great tour guide (Eugeno) that we found on our tour of Palentino Hill. We're actually pretty excited about that. I have managed to pull the muscle that runs along the back of my right ankle. It's not awful, but it's slowing us down. We've bought an ace bandage type of brace for it and at night I'm using those icey/hot stick on things so it's not too bad. From all the walking though both our bodies are a bit beat up, but it's well worth it.

Again, if you need to get a hold of us, use Chris's e-mail since we check it more frequently.

Miss everyone and can't wait to share pictures! We'll try to update once more before we leave.

Ciao!

1 comment:

The Non-Ant said...

Oh gosh. These posts make my Rome-sickness well up inside of me! Oh how I wish I were there.
I cant wait to hear all of the splendid details when you get back! Thanks for keeping us updated! =)