DAY 7 March 28, 2008- Rome

the sweet old lady made us breakfast, which was still just buns and jam... and tea. We were up super early to get our train and she agreed to drive us to the station.... but thought we meant airport. so halfway there i stopped her and we did get to the train station on time.... thank god. it was a good save by me... amy was not paying attention at 6 in the morning. We took the train to Rome, got off at the wrong stop (on purpose to be closer to our hostel). and then walked the little bit to the hostel..... the most terrifying one so far, the walls were covered with graffiti saying to turn around and get out as fast as possible, we were not so pleased. Thankfully, we didnt stay there because their bathrooms were broken or something. So they sent us to an arranged other hostel-- Marco's. it was soooo nice. we lucked out big time.. marco was this big man who was super nice and friendly. it was a great place. amy and i then decided to walk into the center of the city, we didnt really know what we were doing, just what we do best- wander. we got pizza and ate it infront of this beautiful church. we then ventured down to the forum... the archaeological center of Rome. we couldnt find our way in for a while, but eventually got in.... for free. again. it was awesome. this was one of my fave places ever. it was just archaeology overload. We wandered in the forum for hours... it was huge. and saw the ancient gardens and palaces of the ceasars and everything... all the old temples for the gods and muses. it was awesome... we were stalking tour guides, to get little tidbits of what everything was, when a dashingly handsome tourguide named Jason, from lousiana (american? come on. we needed a dashing italian... oh well.) he was leading a free tour of the forum and we were bugs to a bright light... he was spinning the best tales. it was fascinating. they have to be fascinating in order to do their job. he had the entire group spell bound. by the end of his tour. i was in love (kidding... alittle.) and he like a million people following him around the forum. he then of course plugged his tours that actually cost money... and me and amy decided we had to see him again... and agreed to go on his vatican tour. We left the forum and walked to the spanish steps... a great spot. We saw the trevi fountain where the penny throwing became a tradition. We saw a bunch of oblisks. the tall pointy monuments from egypt. (like the one in d.c. which is not from egypt tho.) these were actually taken from egypt and then a cross was put on the top to crush the pagan religion... really interesting stuff. the one in the vatican supposedly has a peice of the crucifix in it... we then saw piazza popolo and had goooood pesto pasta. when we were walking back we stopped a bar for a glass of wine and sat outside. a nice touristy couple were sitting at the table next to us. Two more tourists stopped to ask them directions... and they stole the womans purse and ran... well the woman ran after them... we were just shocked by the whole thing as was her husband/boy friend. she actually caught up with them and they got arrested... the waiter thought tho that they were dining and dashing and we had to explain what happened to him.. it was quite shocking to actually witness something like that. it so could have been us... amy's purse was right next to the lady's... and we carried our lives in our purses. it would have been disasterous. anyway, we went back to the hostel and went to sleep... and discovered that i was sunburned. and in an interesting way. my hair is so long that i had it in a pony tail and over on shoulder, which meant that only half of my chest was burned... it looked so odd. it was funny.
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