Alberto & Maria Vittoria Rome

... inspiring architecture and<br>grandeur of St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. I downloaded<br>some of Rick Steves' podcasts for these two sites and it was great to<br>hear his playful and informative presentation of the history behind<br>their majesty. St. Peter's is enormous; the Counter-Reformation can be<br>thanked for that. The Church had to show off its prowess to keep its<br>faithful in the fold. Thank you Martin Luther, the result is<br ...

... hung out, had our FREE DINNER!! It was just a plate of pasta...but Free none the less with a glass of wine as well...good deal really. After dinner the four of us decided to go for some Gelatti (no big surprise with Leanne and I lol) and then we were just back at the hostel for the evening.<br><br>Day 1 in Rome we headed over to the Colosseum and the Palatine area...wow it was quite a site to see the Colosseum as you walked ...

... only had the bast**ds removed the front grille to disable the bonnet trip switch for the alarm, but had ripped out the whole alarm, wrenched out one of the front quarter windows, opening the central locking, but had tried to drive the whole van off. The dash was smashed up as they had pulled the steering column wires out, bending the steering wheel almost in half trying (successfully) to get the steering lock off, but luckily the two immobilisers on the van had ...

... Budapest girls are weird. On the one night that we had in Salzburg, we went to a truly enormous beer hall / building type thing that was just packed to the rafters. There was a heap of people outside as well, who were not just clamoring to get inside, but were almost on the verge of rioting. The police were on the scene pretty quickly, and the very young crowd who so wanted to get in were kind of contained. The were held at the gates largely, though quite a few did manage to scale ...

... men conversing around a horse carriage. One of them is a gladiator in full uniform; the vibrant red of his headdress stands out like a lighthouse in a storm, reminding you of those What-Doesn't-Belong-in-the-Picture games. A couple of meters away, a blond woman with some hefty luggage in tow stops to pet an indifferent horse, and its owner quickly slides her a smile. Maybe, you wonder, in ...

... of St. Valentine (think 14th Feb and cupids) - a femur and skull. Along the way we passed the Circo Maximus where chariot races were held and saw where on Palatine Hill Romulus slayed his twin brother Remus (chopped his head off) and hence go on to found Rome. We headed into the Jewish Ghetto and stopped at a Piazza where many jews were rounded up by the nazis and shipped off to concentration camps from. The piazza's name (which escapes me) is the date when the nazis seized control of ...

Today, we went to another country...the Vatican that is. While waiting on the bus from the campsite, we met three girls from Georgia Southern. It was nice to chat with them and meet some fellow Southerners. When we finally got to the Vatican, the line to enter was easily more than a mile long and I am NOT exaggerating. I really thought we might not get to go in. Then we were stopped by a British dude telling us how to get in on a guided tour. After listening ...

... fashionable in Italy....with shorts, shirts, dresses. The city was alive and very crowded {Mardi Gras} with all the festivities. It is now around 2:00 am and we ask a nice policia for directions back to our hotel. We quickly learned it was all uphill on cobble streets with flip flops, many people and four to five miles back to the Ascot....we arrived back around 3:00 am. I guess we did enjoy their WHITE NIGHT!!! Chow for now, are we asleep yet.

... another hostel. Rome: Well my first destination was St. Peter's Basilica of course. As I entered Vatican city, I couldn't believe the number of tourists around. There was a line up that wrapped around the front court about three times (is it called St. Peter's square? Because it's not square). I estimated it would take 2 hours and the Sistine chapel would close at 2pm, and that is the main thing I want to see, so I said I'll come back tomorrow in the early hours of the ...

... boot wil Esther even naar binnen maar ze glijdt uit en valt de kajuit in. Janwillem vraagt of het gaat, maar er komt geen antwoord. Ze ligt plat op de vloer met d'r voet dubbelgeklapt. D'r rug is langs het plankje bij de ingang geschaafd en vertoond nu een grote schaafwond. Het ziet er niet best uit. We gaan buiten de schaafwond schoonmaken als Mr. De Rosa langs komt. Hij schrikt van haar pijnlijk uitziende rug en vraagt of we er geen ijs op moeten doen. Aangezien wij geen ...