Ciao Italia!!

I'm in Italy!!! I FINALLY have Internet access!! First blog in Italy!

What you've missed so far was me in Rome. It was surreal to be in a place that I had only seen in tv, movies, textbooks, and replicated in Vegas! I call shenanigans on all of you who have been to Italy and never told me about the crazy "Kilikili Power" (that's B.O. to all you non-Filipinos)!!! I understand that Eurpoeans don't like to bathe daily, but would it kill them to use deodorant?!?

Our hotel room in Rome was like a closet!! I've sustained some bruises on my legs and arms from bumping into corners of walls, towel racks, doors, luggage, and sometimes a cousin!

First stop in Rome was the famed Colosseum! Let me tell ya that thing is a lot smaller than I expected!! It's not nearly as big as the Colosseum in South Central if you can believe that! The stairs were quite steep and uneven, so it was scary @ times going up and down them.

Across the way from the Colosseum was Palatine Hill. This is allegedly the birthplace of Rome. This is the hill where the she-wolf fed Rome's founders Romulus and Remus. It was also the home of all the Caesars.

On the other side of the hill was the Forum. Again, nothing like I expected. In all honesty I was expecting to find the ruins of something resembling The Great Western Forum in Inglewood. NOPE! All I found were ruins!! What I found inneresting was I got to visit the gravesite of Julius Caesar!! It wasn't fancy, just in a 3 walled brick building and a mound of dirt with flowers on top. For all I know there's nothing there but a big pile of dirt!!

Another underwhelming site was Circo Maximo or Circus Maximus in English. It's where all these great sporting events and fights took place but now it's just a big dirt ditch!!

Next day found us in a different country...Vatican City to be exact! Like good Catholics, we paid homage to THE church of all churches! We took the big two hour walking tour of the Vatican. Our tour guide was very accommodating about our comfort, very knowledgable, very funny, and looked very much like Jeremy Piven!! The inside of the Vatican is very impressive and very massive! I stood in awe of the many works of art as well as being in the same room as the many Popes who have occupied those rooms for centuries. I was most awestruck when I went into the Sistine Chapel. I was impressed by the infamous ceiling, but I was more impressed by the painting @ the front altar, "The Last Judgement." it was one of Michlangelo's last works. It depicted heaven, purgatory, and hell. After this tour my cousins and I were wiped! Wiped out enough to take a taxi back to our hotel.

This morning we said arrivederci to Rome and ciao to Florence!! What I will miss about Rome aside from all the historical monuments, the faboo coffee that came with my brekkie every morning. That was THE smoothest and richest coffee I've ever had!!

We arrived in Florence around 2 in the afternoon. Our room is gi-normous compared to our room in Rome. We also (obviously) have Internet access and it's free to boot! Downside is our bath tub has NO shower curtain!! This should be very interesting! Only thing we've done today is shop and eat even more gelato!! In 4 days I've had gelato 5 different times from 5 different places! Each and every one of them was faboo!

Ok time to sign off for now. Gotta figure out how to take a shower without a shower curtain!! TTFN!! ;-p