Incredible Roma!

Hi everyone!!
Well we are happily living in Rome for 3 days.  Last time we updated our blog we were in Cinque Terre, from there we jumped on a train and headed to Pisa and then came to Florence. 

Pisa was a short stop off for us on the train, we jumped off the train with our big backpacks (thanks to the Walsh's for lending them to us) and trekked over to see the ever photographed LEANING TOWER OF PISA.  We walked through a long stretch of chic hip shops, and eventually got to the leaning tower... it sure is a leaning and everywhere you will see a gazillion tourists doing the classic pose... "O I am so strong I am holding up the tower" or pushing it over... sheesh, so that was embarassing to watch that all so we posed normally and called it a day, headed back to the train station to head to Florence but well... we got lost... horribly lost because, when we asked a guy where the train station was... he said... uhh it's far, I will just give you a ride (NICE GUY!) and thank goodness he did we somehow walked directly away from the station, but that makes for a fun story, and we needed some activity anyways so it was all good.

We had booked a hostel online the day before we headed to Florence... this always scares me because I am just crossing my fingers the place isnt bug infested or weird or creepy because I am just booking it based on price and a few reviews... but luckily our Florence hostel turned out great, a bit out of town but we have time to walk so why not.  We walked our feet off.  Florence is busy with tourists but also fun sites, so we cruised around over the river, looking in shops and many beautiful buildings.  Everyone talked about how much they loved Florence, but for us we found it to be a beautiful city but too busy with tourists, you feel like you are getting ripped off because of all the tourists, and we didn't get the impression anyone was actually FROM there.  But we washed our clothes there and that made our day DELIGHTFUL! Beautiful city, but not one of our favourites.

From Florence we hopped on what we thought was an hour and half train ride from Florence to Rome... turns out our ride (2nd class) was 3 hours long... whoops, haha but we made it and man are the train rides just beautiful! Dad you would love the train rides in Italy!  The country side is spectacular, random castles on hills, lush green forests, vineyards everywhere, everything you would imagine of Italy from the movies.

Here we are in Rome at another hostel we blindly booked online, and this one is funky and cool! I like it!  Our room is BRIGHT FUCHIA and has humongo wall paper art on the wall, floral and funky!  Rome has been incredible.  So much to see here it is almost overwhelming.  You just wouldn't believe it is all real.  The Colleseum, so big and magnificent, tomorrow we are taking a tour through it.  The ruins of the roman villages, just impressive!  The spanish steps, those hold a lot of people.  The Sistine Chapel has been the highlight, art EVERYWHERE, walls, ceilings, floors, it takes your breathe away, and it is so neat to follow the paintings that provide images for so many of the Biblical stories.  You can hardly imagine people could create these things, these images that mimic reality.  It is bizarre to look into a painting that is so old and think, just paint can look like a real person in front of me, and with so much emotion.

The food...tonight was another delicious meal.  We lucked out and found a great trattoria with good wine, and large portions and delicious pasta.  "Right up my alley and down my street" as my mom would say. 

So our plan is to stay in Rome until Wednesday and then we will head down to Troia (this is the heart of the Southern part of Italy, where Jon's dad is from).  We found this town on an ancient map in the Vatican today, which gives us some idea of how old this town is.  We are looking forward to being out of cities and into quieter towns with less people.  It will be quite a contrast from what we have been in this whole trip as Troia is known for being a medieval farm town. yessssssssss............ give me some laid back living and less lines and people with B.O. haha there is a LOT of that here! POOF!

The men in Italy have impressed both of us, not pigs, not perverted, very polite.  I appreciate that!  I get the occasional... beautiful girl... beautiful eyes, but it is from the old fella's and that is a-ok with me... and Jon.

Well, we are signing off, but we love your comments so keep them coming.  We love you all and miss you very much.

Love Heather and Jon (Jon was beside me the whole time I wrote this so it was really from both of us).

ps. I can't see which pictures are what on this computer so I am blindly uploading a couple pics in hopes they are fun ones.... here's hoping!

CIAOOOOOO!!!!