Malu Rome

... sf in the Vatican. The value of the Sistine Chapel? Money has no meaning. The last pope started a modern art gallery in 1973, in order to display a collection that was largely donated by artists over the past 2 centuries just to claim that they had paintings in the Vatican – Van Gogh, DeChirico, Feininger, Kandinsky, Bottero, Severini – 30 rooms of art, an afterthought in Vatican terms, but a world renowned billion ...

... those called? (that's for you luke!) SO, in the end..my hotel room is so cool and andrew finally came back to the hotel to find amanda! then, i went out and had the best pizza in my entire life! the bread was made with only olive oil and no butter or margerine. it had cut up cherry tomatoes...man it was delicious! and even easy to digest (the sign said so).
tomorrow i'm off to see the vatican then to the cruise!!

... the metro to thr Trevi Fountain, which was beautiful. Then we went to the Vatican, and spent hours wandering around with our audio guide. The end of the Vatican Museum tour ends in the Sistine Chapel, where no pictures are allowed to be taken. We spent at least half an hour looking around the Chapel in silence. The Last Judgment is breathtaking, and the ceiling gives you an endless amount of paintings to admire. Next we went to square where St. Peter's Bascilica is located. First ...

... After paying 30 euro to get into the museum we were both very underwhelmed by the Sistine chapel. I have seen so many better Frescoes during our travels (including Raphaels in the preceeding rooms) and to have to view it crammed in with thousands of other sweaty and obnoxous tourists was more then I could stand. The Basillica and main square on the other hand were brilliant (and free). After the vatican we headed down to some fort (you have to forgive me... I don't have ...

Day 10 (Rome) - 27 October 2007 Up early yet again and out on the front deck as we approach Civitavecchia. Quite a few ships in port and another following us in. Head into harbour and pass Galaxy. Directly ahead of us is a Seabourn ship (name ??), Regent Seven Seas Voyager and one of the yachts of the Sea Dream Yacht Club. The ship coming in behind is the new Arcadia. Lovely looking ship. Why ...

... and changed our room for ones with air conditioning... because no one in their right mind would willingly be outside in this weather! Then we had a shower, had supper at the restraunt in the campsite (i had spaghetti with tomato sauce with onions and hot peppers. it was divine!) then we had showers, and discovered that our sink leaked all over the floor. So then we went to bed in our air-conditioned paradise! And more on Venice later.... CIAO!

... americans. A few frat guys, couple of nice girls from new york and a cool 32 year old guy from chicago called mike, who had just been to normandy. He had the same WW2 interests as me, and he also has become a alcoholic. He was drunk every night i saw him. He also had a interesting story about vince vaughaun who came into a night club event he organised. He was talking to him in the urinals and apparently vince vaughan threatned to snap his neck. I love vince vaughan ...

So I left Rome wishing I could have seen more but I knew I would be back! I instantly fell in love with the trains. The sounds and the gentle rocking made me feel like I was traveling the way people were meant to travel. I arrived at the wrong train station, and after getting it sorted out I met up with my cousin and he took me to his "humble abode" (or anything but) where I arrived ...

... the smog in the city center. It's this CELTA Teacher Training course I signed up for. I was warned by past students that it was one solid month of HELL getting this certificate in "how to teach English to non-native speakers." And, well, there is a heck of a lot of info to absorb and regurgitate in only 30 days. But I have found that after absolutely HATING it at first, it actually isn't that bad. It's the students that make it fun. There is one woman, Nika, who is from Brazil but ...

... off to the Piazza San Pitro again and was lucky to get a good view of the Pope, as he whizzed by on the 'pope mobile'. After that I went to the Piazza Di Spagna and the famous Spanish Steps. There I climbed the steps and went into the Church of Trinita Dei Monti at the top before heading back down and having a drink out of the boat-shaped drinking fountain. After that I went ...