Good morning Rome! How are you today? Oh, you want to knock me in the head again with the roll-up shade on my balcony door, thank you!

I'm kidding Rome, I'm not mad. It's beautiful here, but busy and somewhat noisy. Go figure, thriving metropolis such as this is expected to be a bit loud. We are near a huge piazza, so there's a lot of traffic, but it's a great spot to be. While walking and wandering to find a hotel room in other cities may not work, you could definitely do it here. There are hotels everywhere! Cafes with Wi-Fi and excellent food and wine. I love this city.

I do feel compelled to warn nonsmokers. Smoking is legal everywhere. Cafes, streets, attractions, everywhere. It's rare to see a no-smoking sign.

Today, we venture to the Vatican to hit the museum, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. I can't wait! These see some of my favorite sites here. I'll check back in later, but on a side note, my clothes weren't that crunchy, so I'll call mom's wash bag a success. She's pleased and will be doing more laundry tonight.

We've been to the Trevi Fountain, the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, the ruins at the Colosseum, and souvenir shopping. We had lunch at an awesome trattoria and it's the best meal we've had since coming here.

The Trevi Fountain was stunning. It's finally working! I've been here twice and both times it was under construction. But, now...

Oh god, I think that picture will be crooked. Crap, I'll have to fix it when I get home to a computer. Sorry, y'all. After the fountain, we walked through a bunch of shops and mom picked up a souvenir. Turns out mom is allergic to some Italian tree and has been slightly miserable since we got here. Bit of a bummer really.

After shopping, we hit the Piazza del Popola and watched a man blow man-sized bubbles with rope. We continued our trek and found a tour that was not exorbitantly priced. The first said 56 Euro, ha! No. The second said 49, better, but still no. We found a guy who gave it to us for 41, now we're talking. We accepted and our tour guide was AWESOME! Sylvio (though mom insists his name was Thomas) was loud and chatty and sang a lot. He talked to everybody! In their own language usually. He spoke pieces of at least... I don't even know... We heard Spanish, Hindi, Japanese, English, German, French, Italian, Thai, and Arabic! The man was my hero. He was very energetic and insightful and a delight to learn from. We were a "bubble of beauty, a team, so stick together," he told us. "All these other people are ugly, stay away from them!" He was a delight.

After the Vatican was our wonderful lunch of bread and cheese with pasta for dinner. I had wine and mom had 7up. Ha, no Sprite.

We wandered some more and ended up back in the room for a quick stop to rest our feet and collect our tickets for the antiquities near the colosseum. This came with our ticket into the colosseum. Mom wanted to find Caesar's grave. (Though he was not buried, he was cremated in the Roman tradition, there is a small monument to his memory)

Now, we're back at the hotel, organizing and preparing for our next three days. All travel days. Tomorrow, we venture to somewhere, no idea where yet and from there back to Paris for our return flights home on Sunday. Stay tuned to see where we land! I'm signing off for the night.

Thanks, y'all!