So it begins..

As some of you may ask.. no my flight to Rome wasn't an issue. The flight from Newark (my only lay over from SFO) is almost straight East and some some south. Due to this, there isn't a time or distance saving to go over the poll and down through the area affected by the volcanic ash.

Both flights were uneventful, though I hadn't slept the night previously, so I caught a few zzz's on the plane.

I finally arrived in Rome and got to the Legends Hostel without much issue. The place had quite a few people in it, but for the first two days i had a room to myself.

I would eventually meet up with a few Australians, 4 Americans, 2 British blokes and a mishmash of others. We generally would all go out with Greame (one of the Brits) leading the way. He spoke Italian and knew the streets. We hit a pub crawl that first night.. which was a mistake.

So to recap my condition: My internal clock was off, I hand't slept much the previous week.. and the last 48 hours had almost no sleep.. then after having made all of those stellar decisions I had oh so wisely chosen to go drinking. Bad Idea..

I was so out of forts the next day I didn't get up until well after noon, still felt sick, and basically did nothing all day. Yeah.. real smart. ;-)

(this is why i have no pictures from day 2..)

I made up for it the next few days and hit all the tourist spots.

Here's the short version:

Coliseum: Should be in the dictionary next to AWESOME. The scale of the thing is simply so grandiose. I would love to see it when first built.

Trevi Fountain: Neat gathering spot, After 20 minutes though I was done. Visiting it at night in the light rain was neato too.

Spanish Steps: Same as Trevi.

Palatine Hill: Great scenic walk. Wish I had a guide book to identify things. Gorgeous views.

Forum: Close you eyes.. imagine it filled with Romans. Street vending, politicking, traveling, parading, etc.. Again though I should have brought some guide to remind myself what everything was. Being there in the spot I realized I knew some of the building should be there.. but couldn't ID them.

St. Peters Square: huge open area.. Hey didn't I see the obelisk in Angels & Demons?? ;-)

St. Peters Basilica: BIG.. weathly... Built to make a clear statement and makes it.

Vatican Museum: Wow.. the Romans sure did steal a bunch of stuff from conquered cultures... Wow the Catholic church sure did steal a lot of that stuff from the Roman empire. Wow.. this sure is a LONG walk to the Sistine Chapel.

Sistine Chapel:

Castle D'St. Angelo: Great views of the city, neat heritage. I highly recommended this as post Vatican stop.

Christian Catacombs: Really neat. Saw the resting place of several 3rd century popes.

I saw several other things.. but right now having a hard time recalling it all.
While I was there it was Romes bithday, April 21st. So they had a neat video show on the sides of building in Piazza De Popolo (spell check that.. ;-) ) along with some neat, but hour late, fireworks. Another advantage of my trip's timeline? Most state run museums and locations are free in all of Italy for Cultural Heritage week.

Weather has been in the 70's with some light rain on two days.