hot hot hot!

Its smokin hot here. I take it back when I said I had never sweated as much as I did in Cinque Terre...Rome is hotter. Even the locals are complaining about the heat! This is our third full day here, and so far we've checked out the Vatican, the Colloseum, Palentine Hill and the Roman Forum (and almost died from heat stroke several times). Today the Spanish Steps, Trivie fountain and Pantheon are on the agenda, along with some shopping and aimless strolling. Our first two nights here we stayed in the Roma Camping Village, but yesterday we moved into more downtown Rome with a couch surfing host Biagio. Its a great setup...we have our own room in a beautiful beautiful apartment and Biagio cooks dinner for us in the evenings! Tonight hes making us his speciality...some kind of Italian stuffed fish. This morning I woke up (early because the sun was burning my legs off already at 8:00), walked to the open market and bought eggs, fruit and pasteries for breakfast. I actually managed to do everything without using any English or having to ask if they speak English! I am by no means saying my Italian is very good (since Ive basically only mastered the numbers, please, thank you, yes, no, I understand and I dont speak italian) but you can pick up a lot with gestures, and I love the feeling of being surrounded by Italian people rather then packs of tourists.

Going to the Vatican the other day was quite the experience...it was a religious holiday so the Musuem and Sistine Chapel was closed, but we went to St. Peters Basillica (the most impressive church in Italy), where the pope was doing a ceremony. It was really quite incredible...9:00 in the morning and there are hundreds and hundreds of people sitting outside in the square watching the Pope on giant TV screens and listening to the music coming from the church. Gave us goosebumps actually, although I thought it was strange to see the Pope on giant hi-tech TV screens. Anyway, so were sitting there hanging out when all of a sudden people start running to one side of the square. Carolyn and I had no idea what was going on but decided to run anyways! In recent experience whenever crowds run, theres usually a reason (going to miss the train etc) so its generally better to join. I dont know how well it worked in this case buuut...they were letting just some people into the church where the pope was. So we got our elbows up and made it in (it was hilarious to see nuns literally pushing each other out of the way to get inside). Inside though you couldnt see the pope at all, and it was just over crowded with dumbstruck looking tourists. Made me feel a little claustrophobic so I left. Carolyn though snuck by the guards and managed to snag a picture of the pope (even though he looks so tiny you can hardly see him).

Yesterday we went to visit Ben's Nonna...which ended up being quite the treck because we got very lost, but really fun once we made it there, AND we got stuck in the tiny tiny elevator at our apartment. We actually had to call the elevator guys but it unstuck itself after about 15 minutes. Then we got into a fight with Biagios Italian grandma...she wouldnt let us out of the elevator, but I was freaking out at this point and wanted to be the furthest possible from that elevator. But Italian grandmas are persistent and when she started yelling at me in Italian and pointing her finger into my chest I relented and got back on the elevator.

Ok so 3 more days in Rome and then were off to Naples!