Rome

We arrived in Rome yesterday around 8:30 their time in the AM. dropped our bags off at our hostel, Hotel Yellow, which reminds me of Taylors in Eugene or the Ram in Salem at night. Great roommates though! First day walked around for a long time trying to find a Tourist Information center to get our Roma Pass, which gets us into everything cheap and/or free. fnally found it near e Castel S. Angelo! Apparently, I developed a heat rash really bad from Greece and my ankles started swelling and eventually have huge blisters on the bad of my ankles. you've never seen cankles like my cankles right now. Randy helpled me to get back to rest and ice my legs. Unfortunately, no ice so we took his clean underwear and soaked them in cold water and wrapped them changing them every 1/2 hour. Randy was a great caretaker! Helped make sure I could get showered, clean the area, etc. Also, went out that niht to get me pizza and pepsi! He's a keeper! Our roommates are from Berlin, Turkey, Wisconsin, and California.

Day two, Ive decided I must be part Italian because I love the food and understand Italian because its so close to Spanish! Had lasagna for dinner and so did Randy...we were in heaven! We toured the Colloseum, Forum, Palatino, the Spanish steps, Campo de Fiori, Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Fontana di Trevi, Piazza de Venezia, the parliment, and many other cool places. Everywhere you walk are cool old buildings. My camera battery almost died. After visiting the Colloseum, made me want to read the book of Romans again since it was built in the first century AD. Ankles are still swollen but feel much better! Tonight on the way home the metro (train) was closec fr construction...brutal, luckily we figured out the bus. Tonight's roomies are from Toronto area. Oh! almost forgot...we were standing in line to the Forum and the family in front f us had two girls one said " well, she's in Eugene all summer." So we started up conversation and they are from Portland! Crazy small world.

Tomorrow - we tour the Vatican in the morning, then that evening take a train to Pisa to quickly see the tower then back on the train to Florence then Venice.