We woke up at 4am this morning to get a good start on our hellish journey ahead. We had some big bowls of Frosties, some yogurt, but I somehow forgot to make coffee! I was still a little bit wobbly from the booze (oops!), but it made my eyes sting less. We got our bags stuffed full and started on our way through our seedy neighborhood at 5am.

Getting our train tickets and getting set up at the platform was much easier than expected. We were ready to go with 35 minutes to spare before the train took off. On the train, there were hardly any passengers so we got an entire compartment to ourselves. It was a nice way to relax and stretch our legs before being packed like sardines in the airplane.

We arrived at the airport and at the baggage check counter with 3 hours to spare. Unfortunately, we didn't realize the baggage counters don't open for another 45 minutes. We sat around on our luggage waiting for them to open up, and didn't actually end up getting in line for 1hr 15 minutes later (everyone was running late). I don't know if it's just me, or my culture, but I thought it was incredibly unprofessional of them to advertise opening at 7am, and not actually opening until 7:15. Oh well, we're getting out!

By the time we made it through security and got to our gate, we only had to wait for an hour. I poked around through some of the duty free shops, we got some coffee and croissants (the Italians really hate breakfast - everything is covered in sugar and there weren't any muffins or bagels to be seen) and read while waiting. There was a huge catholic tour group there comprised of people from all over the US. They were obnoxious and I told Eileen if this one particular guy sat anywhere near us, I was going to flip.

We boarded the plane and this guy was sitting right behind me. Fantastic! The plane was only half-full (or half-empty, but I try to be optimistic on plane flights) so people moved around and spread out. Trying to sleep is futile, but we managed to get a few winks in here and there. Mostly we just watched movies - all of which were terrible - and Eileen read quite a bit. A huge contrast to the flight into London, the food was great on this trip. They didn't have any extra vegetarian plates for Eileen (I could never figure out how to order it online - it said special meal requests were not applicable for us) but the stewardess was very nice and rounded up some extra side salads and fruit plates for her. I got two meat meals out of the deal, too! We packed a bag of bruschetta chips for the flight just in case, and they were very good (and fatty).

9.5 hours later we touched down turbulently in Newark. We had to claim our bags, wait in line for 30 minutes for customs, and re-check our bags. Customs was great, nothing like London. There was only one person re-checking bags and he was trying to juggle three international flights...recipe for disaster.

The flight from Newark to Atlanta was scheduled for 2 hrs 45 minutes but the captain kept saying 1 hr 45 minutes. We took off 30 minutes late and arrived in Atlanta 30 minutes early, so I don't know why the schedule was calling for a nearly 3 hour flight. We met Jim at the top of the escalator and went to claim our bags. Remember that recipe I talked about? Yeah, they prepared it perfectly and lost my bag. At least they knew it was in Newark (not filthy, filthy Rome) and plan on delivering it to Mom's house personally. Nothing of serious consequence in that bag except for my pricy jacket, so not a big deal.

We finally got to bed at 10pm, 4am our time, so we had officially been awake and traveling for 24 hours with worthless naps in between.

Thanks everyone for keeping up with our travels! I'm certainly glad I kept a log of them because I've already forgotten all of London and most of Paris. I'll eventually get some pictures posted for you all to see, but that might take awhile as I took nearly 1200!

I'm glad to be back in a place where my dollar is worth something!

Jonathan and Eileen (safe and home again in the good 'ole US of A)

Today was a lazy day. I was having trouble with my allergies all day and my knee and shin are asleep...strange.

We decided to walk back over to the Pantheon and try out the "best coffee shop in Rome" according to our Rome city guide. It was, in fact, the best coffee in Rome. Actually, they had stickers all over their front door of practically every travel guide doting on the quality of their coffee. There was a New York Times clipping that was an article on where to find the best coffee in NYC. The editor said the best coffee can be found on a plane ride to Rome at this coffee shop.

We walked back to the apartment and had a leisurely lunch and nap until the other roommates came back home. We worked up an appetite doing a whole lot of nothing and ate dinner with the Canadians at the apartment (their dinner consisted of nutella on toast, ours was some fettucine). We walked back over to the Pantheon and Trevi fountain after dark to get some more coffee. We took advantage of our last night in Europe and their loose laws about alcohol in public, and we walked over there with beers in hand. They agreed - the coffee was the best in town. This is the only thing that makes me feel some sort of regret about swearing off Rome for good.

We sat in front of the Pantheon and talked while teasing the annoying street vendors. These guys are incredibly pushy - this time instead of roses, he was trying to pawn off his megaphone to one of our friends. The walk back to the apartment was tiring, and somewhat bittersweet. It was our last night in Rome, but also the end of the honeymoon. While we may never return to Rome, we think this trip has been a great experience for us. We have learned a lot, about ourselves and each other, as well as other cultures. We spent much less than we intended and would love to visit Europe again. However, it won't be for another 4 or 5 years, and maybe only a week and a half this time.

We packed our clothes, said our farewells, and set the alarm for 4am.

So this is what Hay Fever feels like...

For the past two weeks, my right eye has been itching. Finally, today, both of my eyes were itching constantly. They are now red, raw, and hurting like hell. One of the canucks has a number of allergies (and gets hay fever every summer) so he gave me some allergy medication. Hopefully it will help until I can get back to a place without whatever is causing this reaction.

This morning we headed to St. Peter's Basilica. Instead of 6:30, we left around 9:30. We were greeted with the biggest crowd yet on the metro. It was so packed, they had 4 police officers holding people back from the platforms and letting a certain amount of us through at a time. Still, we made it to St. Peter's around 10. We were greeted with all of the infrastructure for a long line (gates, etc.) but only had to wait about 30 seconds to get through security.

St. Peter's was incredible. It was huge, ornate, huge, and oh, enormous. We walked through the tombs of previous popes and were able to feel insensitive as we stepped over the mass of people praying to John Paul II's tomb. They didn't have an alternate route around the tomb, so we had to go through.

The Pieta was beautiful. It's behind bullet-proof glass and you can only get about 30 feet from it. That was unfortunate because you couldn't see it from any other angles. Eileen was very disappointed that we couldn't see it in the round as the back of it is supposedly finished, as well. It's too bad some idiots have to destroy things (ripping of Jesus' toe) and ruin it for the rest of us. The Aussies took a picture of a woman being arrested in the Vatican as she tried to steal holy water in a water bottle.

It was strange - all of the rest of the sculpture in St. Peter's was enormous. The Pieta was maybe slightly larger than life-size, but it's hard to tell from 30 feet away. Still, the overwhelming size difference didn't really matter. The piece was beautiful and stood out from the rest. I was kind of surprised about the quality of sculpture in the church though. I didn't see a piece that wasn't excellent, however none of them (to my knowledge) were made by any famous sculptors. The quality was just as good, if not better, than many of the things we have seen in our museum tours.

The only other famous piece of note was a 70 foot high canopy by Bernini. It fit over the altar to fit inside Michelangelo's dome. Mikey designed the entire church, by the way.

Eileen sketched the Pieta for about an hour before we decided to knock out the Vatican Museum while on this side of the river. On our way out, the line for the church was around the courtyard (way longer than I would want to wait).

The line for the Vatican museum was ridiculous. However, it only took about 1.5 hours to get through (much better than the Uffizi). The only problem with the line was that it was about 5 people wide. People were cutting line left and right...I thought, as adults, we were past this. At one point a man comes up on my side and starts pushing his shoulder in front of mine. I kept putting my shoulder in front of his and it continued back and forth until I finally said "Excuse me?". He proceeded to take a tone of voice only a frenchman could take (he was French) and tell me that I was way back in line and he's not going to let me cut in front of everyone. As I explained to him the err of his ways, he apologized and said he was just tired of people getting in front of him. Funny thing though, he ended up about 20 people in front of me when we finally made it to the doors. Whatever, we ended up in front of all of those people when we went through the student line (which saved us a total of 10 euro).

The museum was packed and took forever to get anywhere. We had to walk upstairs, downstairs, downstairs, upstairs, downstairs, and upstairs again just to get to the Sistine Chapel. It was nice...we spent about 15 minutes in there before getting too claustrophobic and frustrated that we had to leave. Eileen and I talked about how we could tell that Michelangelo didn't really have much interest in it (which he didn't). It actually frustrated Eileen thinking about how much quality sculpture he could have made/finished if he wasn't wrapped up in this chapel.

We came back to the apartment around 3 and had some lunch. We were finally able to find a decent market with spinach and mushrooms. We took a nap and woke up when the Canadians made it back home. Side note: we did get more roommates, a couple - one from Melbourne, the other from Glasgow - but they aren't interested in socializing with us. Speaking of socialization, Eileen has turned into a social butterfly. I don't know what happened, but I hope it continues!

We went out with the Canadians and we walked to the Trevi fountain (another Bernini masterpiece) to see it lit up. We had some gelatto, took some pictures, and went to Mussolini's palace. It was fun...we got back around midnight and hit the sack.

Today was a sad day - our Aussie friends left us. It's funny, we thought it would be a burden to share a small apartment with other people, but we hit it off so well with them that we didn't want them to leave. I suppose a part of it has to do with our being homesick. This family comes to stay in a house-like environment, and they welcome us with open arms. It felt like we were visiting with family we hadn't seen in a long time. So, when they left, it was lonely here. We didn't get any pictures with them, which we now regret, but we got their contact information. And, if we're ever in Australia, we have a place to stay.

After moping around a little bit we got moving and headed off towards the Pantheon. The forecast called for scattered showers but it was warm out, so we left our rain jackets at the apartment. The Pantheon was very cool. I had forgotten what it looked like...it was an ancient building on the outside, and looked brand new on the inside. There wasn't too much to see inside aside from the incredible dome (I'm so tired of religious art at this point in the trip).

Rain clouds moved in so we booked it a block down the street to Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, a small church with a little known Michelangelo sculpture. Of course, they were having a mass, so we could only get about halfway up the nave. The sculpture was right next to the pulpit so we could only get a glimpse of it. The church closed for Rome's 'siesta' (from 12-3 every day a lot of shops close) in 30 minutes and the mass probably went that long. There was another church nearby - Santa Maria Della Vittoria - with three Caravaggio paintings inside. We were able to spend about 15 minutes inside before being pushed out due to closing time. Coincidentally enough, the rain started to pour as they shut the doors behind us. We ran into a nicer supermarket than what we have by the apartment and did some more shopping.

We had to run from the train station to the apartment because it was a downpour. We made some tortelloni and frozen vegetables and relaxed a little bit. As we headed back out (to one more church) in between patches of sunlight, we saw our new roomies coming up the stairs. On the way to Saint Peter in Chains (a church made to house...the chains of Saint Peter), I saw a wonderful sight. A child, urinating on the sidewalk, while his mother helped him. Not 10 steps further I had to dodge a pile of human waste. Did I mention I strongly dislike Rome?

Saint Peter in Chains was very nice. The chains were...chains. The biggest attraction of this church was Michelangelo's Moses from the tomb of Julius II. It was very nice, but it didn't seem as real as the David. Moses was beautiful but he lacked something believable. We couldn't get very close to him, but he seemed...well, like a statue, instead of a man.

We went back to the apartment and visited with our new house guests. There is still one room that is vacant, so we don't know if that will be filled tonight or not. We have three Canadian college students. I think we lucked out again; they seem very nice. The rest of the evening will be for relaxing. Tomorrow we go to Saint Peter's in Vatican City at 6:30am, and then the Vatican Museum on Tuesday.

Our time is coming near to be home again!

Love,
Jonathan and Eileen

Well, todays forecast called for showers, but we didn't see any. It was cool for most of the day, so wearing our lightweight jackets worked out well.

We had reservations for the Borghese Gallery at 11am and left the apartment at 10. It took us awhile to find the museum as it is on an enormous plot of land/park. Even still, we arrived around 10:30 and sat around waiting for our time slot to open. The museum was great - the highlights were Bernini's David, his Apollo and Daphne, Rape of Proserpina, some Caravaggio, and some Raphael. I had never seen a Bernini before, but I'm glad I did. He was incredibly talented. This museum was very small, it only took about 45 minutes to take good long looks at most of the pieces. We were only allowed to stay there for 2 hours so Eileen took the extra time to sketch the David. I was exhausted and ended up falling asleep sitting on the stairs for some time.

After the museum, we took some pictures of the old Roman wall around the city, and we came back to eat lunch. We had some more premade tortelloni with ricotta and truffle oil; it was fairly good.

After lunch, we headed to Santa Maria Della Vittoria, a nearby free church that houses Bernini's Saint Theresa in Ecstacy. It was nice, but the small church was way overdone. Every alcove had a machine that looked like a token box for an arcade game. The only way to light the art, in some cases, was to drop a 50 cent piece in the machine. Other times, you drop money in and it 'lights' an electric candle.

On our return trip to the apartment, we walked through a large plaza filled with dirty kids and blasting reggae music. Flags with marijuana leaves were flying, all the kids were smoking it, wearing pot leaf cut out masks...with cops everywhere. I'm not sure what was happening, and why the cops weren't doing anything. As far as I know, it's illegal here. There were also anti GW Bush posters around...we walked swiftly.

We visited with our house guests some more and they actually cooked us dinner. It was quite good - pasta with some stir fried veggies - and we repaid the favor by doing the dishes.

Tomorrow we do the Pantheon as well as two or three small churches that house one piece of artwork each.  We made up so much time with the Colosseum and Museum in one day, that we can afford to take it easy tomorrow. Weather permitting, we'll also see the four oceans fountain and the Spanish steps. Then all we'll have left is St. Peter's Basilica on Monday, Vatican Museum on Tuesday, and home on Wednesday!

I hate Rome. It's filthy (that's putting it nicely), way overcrowded, and the people are rude. We didn't think we could meet more arrogant people than some Americans. We will be able to survive without ever visiting this city again. It's sad how everyone is clutching their purses/backpacks for dear life at all times. Standing on the metro, it would be normal to people watch. A man in front of me was looking around the train, peering over peoples shoulders, staring at purses. I saw it again with another man waiting for another train. I've taken for granted the ability to put my wallet in my back pocket or rifle through it in public without worrying about it getting stolen. These people have no regard for any other person on the sidewalk (or street for that matter). On sidewalks made for one person, Eileen has actually had to step into the road because a man coming the opposite direction wouldn't move aside (this happened multiple times). Maybe I'm just used to 'Southern Hospitality', who knows? Anyway, enough ranting. We'll get to see some great things in the next couple days, but I'm certainly glad we are doing Rome last; we're able to appreciate the other cities much more in retrospect.

Love,
Jonathan and Eileen

We have been so lucky with our weather thus far...until today. Rain, rain, and more rain. The weather forecast calls for rain today, showers tomorrow, rain Sunday, and showers Monday. The only benefit I can see from this is that I can use my inside pocket on my rainjacket/windbreaker to hold my wallet; I won't have to worry about it constantly in my pants pocket. Today was supposed to be our ancient Rome day, but for some reason none of these places have roofs anymore...what barbarians. It didn't look like it would ever let up, so we flip-flopped our Sunday plans - the National Museum of Rome - hoping for better weather come Sunday.

When rain comes, every street vendor selling fake Gucci paraphernalia becomes an umbrella vendor. Even if you have an umbrella, which we didn't, you will get handfuls of them shoved in your face...it's rather annoying. We walked to the Museum and were some of the only people in there at this time. This place houses "The greatest collection of Roman sculpture anywhere" and was very interesting. I've said it before, but it's a very surreal feeling to be in a room with artifacts (in this case, early 1st century) with the ability to get close enough to breathe on them. Since the weather was so poor, we took the time to read a lot of the information plaques (they were also in English - a novelty we haven't had very many times). We were able to learn some things and it made the experience much more enjoyable.

We finished the museum around noon (started around 9) and came back to the apartment for lunch. The cleaning lady was here and a sign strictly forbids guests from "cooking or loitering (really) in the common areas while the cleaner is here". So, we went hungry for a half hour or so before she left.

After lunch, the sky opened up and we decided to take advantage of the opportunity. It was 2:30 and we had done all we planned for Sunday. We went ahead and did half of our ancient Rome sightseeing. We did the Coloseo, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Arch of Constantine, and Arch of Titus. All we have left is the Pantheon, which is quite a ways from the Colosseum. We had a great time walking around the ruins and eavesdropping on a good tour guide. The Colosseum was a bit of a disappointment to Eileen - it's in disrepair (as you know) - and it seemed a lot smaller than both of us had thought. They are constantly restoring everything in all of the places we have visited. I'm not sure how far they are going with it, but they are putting a floor back on the Colosseum, at least one third of it so far.

After doing 2 days of sightseeing in 1, we were tired, and bought some gnocchi to cook for dinner and a bottle of red wine. The american mother/daughter combo left this morning, and we were greeted with 5 aussies in a room when we returned. I can't believe how well we lucked out with having such friendly house guests. Unfortunately they leave Sunday morning, and we dread to think of who we might have for the remainder of our stay. Can you believe they don't know what a bloomin' onion is?

We stayed up until 11 talking with them and realized Eileen didn't know where her wedding band was. Sound familiar? It's not like it's the first time this has happened,,.At least we left the engagement ring in Marietta (on purpose). After an hour of digging through the trash and turning sofas upside down, we found it under the dish drainage rack. And then we sleep.

(4 more days of activity, then we come home!)
Jonathan and Eileen

Well, we slept in today - 7:30 - because our train didn't leave until 10:53. We took the exra time to get breakfast at the nearby cafe for the third time this week. 2 cappuccinos, another raisin almond scone-like treat, and chocolate filled croissant. The owner and his wife are incredibly sweet and I don't think they speak a word of english.

I'm really looking forward to being able to cook our own meals with the kitchen at this apartment. We joked about it often before leaving Atlanta, but we honestly came very close to just going to McDonalds. It was pretty hard to find a table at a decent restaurant in Florence.

We'll miss Florence...a lot. If we ever come back to Europe, it will be for no more than 2 weeks, and 1 of those will be in Florence. It is so charming, easy to navigate, the gelatto is incredible, and the people are pretty nice. Only drawbacks were the crazy drivers and the main drags smelled overwhelmingly of urine (but that's true of most big cities, right?).

No problems getting on the train to Rome. We saw the same couple from the Accademia we waited with, and chatted for awhile while waiting for our trains. We had seats facing forward on this train! I switched with another unsuspecting couple. It made life easier. A woman opposite me was from Birmingham, AL, and I think there's something in the water that makes them exceedingly sociable (re: mom).

Riding through these picturesque hillside wineries, I was constantly gasping at the view. They are all vividly green and have beautiful rivers running through them. Not as succesful with in-train pictures this time, but some turned out well.

We got in to Rome 3 hours before our check-in time at the hotel so we could get the keys to the apartment. We had enough of this city once we got off the train. It's huge and dirty. The owners of the hotel had an on-site cat that Eileen was able to enjoy while I milled around on their computer.

This apartment is nice. It was designed for the painter Kokocinski (huh?) so it has weird paint treatments on the walls. The area is rather...ethnic. We will not be going out at night. We share the place with an Australian couple on their 20th anniversary, and a mom/daughter combo from NM. The mom/daughter stay just the one night until the Australian's son and friends come into town and stay in the other room. Really, really nice people. We lost track of time and missed out on our sightseeing today because we were in such deep conversation with them. We'll be able to make it up easily enough it seems. They only stay two nights and we can only hope for good company for the remainder.

We went to the supermarket in the train station (weird) and it was pretty basic. However, we were able to find premade tortelloni and some veggies. This premade stuff was so much better than any I've tried in the states. We bought enough for breakfast all week, two dinners, one lunch, and some snacks (fruit, yogurt) for 22 euro. I don't think we'll be eating out in Rome unless we are far away from the apartment and starving.

Tomorrow is half of the ancient sights/sites: Colisseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum, and Arch of Constantine. We may go to St. Peter in Chains (what we missed today) but only if we feel up to it and have the time.

We just found out Capital One has been emailing Eileen telling her they want her to call them about possible fraudulent charges. Well, we lost the phone card (I probably threw it out from frustration) and I can't figure out how to call 1-800 from this phone. Hopefully they don't shut the card off before we leave. Ah well...we'll figure it out.

Jonathan and Eileen

    Holy cow I'm beat. Rain again today, on and off all day long.

    We went to the Accademia as planned this morning. No one was in line at 7, so we figured we could get some coffee and pastries and still not have a long line to wait through when we got back. We were right. Three people in front of us, and we had 1 hour to wait. We read some, talked with the people around us, twiddled our thumbs...until finally the doors opened. We made a bee-line for David. Eileen's eyes welled up, it was great. There are copies around Florence, but none of them come close to even matching the true essence of this sculpture. We sat and looked at him for about an hour before looking at the other pieces in the museum. Michelangelo's unfinished 'Prisoners' are there, as well as 1 of 2 unfinished Pietas (the other was at the Duomo Museum). In all, we spent about 2 hours there.

    Then, we were off to the Medici Chapels. It was uninteresting in the first room. We walked through a corridor that I expected to lead to another small museum-like room, but it was an enormous chapel. The wealth this family had was incredible. The next room was Michelangelo's room - It had Night, Day, Dusk, and Dawn...really very beautiful.

    Now, it's 11:30 and we are still ready to go. We hit the Oil Shoppe and it was open. It was, in fact, the best sandwich I had ever eaten before. It was only € 3.50 to boot, and very filling. I must go again next time in Florence (in 10 years). We headed to the Uffizi.

    12:00 and the line for the Uffizi stretches the entire length of the building, wrapping around it. We start to wait, I start to complain, and Eileen bargains with me - wait 30 minutes, see how fast it moves, and if I still want to leave we can. 30 minutes in and the man behind us, a Canadian, starts chatting with us. Three and a half hours we waited in line. We had good conversation, he'll actually be on the train to Rome with us tomorrow which was quite a coincidence. Three and a half hours we waited in line. Oh, did I mention that? 3.5, three point five, 210 minutes (I think that's right).

    I've had enough the second we get inside...it's all altar pieces (which I have seen my share of this trip) and renaissance portraits. Once again we rely on cappuccino to perk me up, and it did, and I was able to enjoy the art. Every museum we go to, I will have a cup immediately on entering. The Uffizi was a let down. They claim it as Florence's best museum, but I think the Accademia and the Bargello are tied for that spot.

    We came back to the hotel to pack our stuff, and it's all still wet. Over 24 hours of hanging and this place is so humid they are still very moist. I had to hairdry every piece of clothing and it's still not perfect. Now we are headed back to the cafeteria/self-service place for dinner. Train leaves just before 11 tomorrow morning which should give us enough time to get some cappuccino and pastries yet again before getting moving. Reports should come from Rome since we will have a computer in the room (at least, that's how I understand it).

Ciao,
Jonathan (mostly) and Eileen

    So everything had been going as scheduled up until last night. We were in the pharmacy (which, in Europe, are on every corner, upscale, and marked by a trendy neon flashing cross) when we heard a woman talking about needing meds today since everything will be closed tomorrow, a holiday. A holiday, we thought, hmm...whatever. I ask the owner of our hostel about it. He tells me "May 1st is worldwide holiday. Labor Day. You don't know that because you don't work." Well, I appreciated his assumption, but I realized I don't know when Labor Day is because I. Have. Always. Had. To. Work. It.
   
    Nice little stick thrown in our spokes...except that stick was more like a tree trunk. Florence - the most important stop on our trip; Eileen's Disneyworld, her mecca if you will...and we didn't schedule enough days here as it is. We still have the Accademia (David), the Uffizi, and the Medici Chapels (lots of Michelangeo). All three are pretty hard to get in to. Some freak-out crying was done by Eileen, but we chalked it up again as another reason to come back...it really is unfortunate though.

    With everything closed today we started early trying each place to make sure they were all closed. They were. Except! Santa Croce, a church we really wanted to see with Michelangelo, Galileo, and Macchiavelli's tombs. It also has a nice Giotto fresco. It was a really pretty church with some great architecture...huge, too.

    Around noon we were starving so we headed to The Oil Shoppe, the recommended (best sandwich in the world) store. It was closed, as it was last night. We settled for somewhere close to the hotel. It was terrible. There are restaurants here and there are stop-in eateries. The eateries have maybe 2 tables (€ 1.00) just to sit down) and they sell premade foccacia sandwiches and paninis. They all carry the same styles, and they are all small and bland. This place was bad and we were still hungry so we went to Self-Serve Leonardo - a cheap cafeteria. It was great - € 3.50 pastas that taste really good. It was night and day compared to last nights Cafe Duomo ("You can touch the Duomo with your own bare hand! We speak English!). We paid € 18 for a Digornio pizza and Eileen's pasta literally had a sauce that was heated condensed minestrone soup.

    We did our laundry and for 2 out of 3 times have had to bring wet clothing back to the room to hang dry because the dryers were crappy. Now, every article of clothing we have is hanging. I'll have to be a dirty backpacker once and wear the same outfit twice (like my homophobic, art hating brother) but we won't have to do laundry again this trip.

    We made our schedule for Rome tonight. I'm excited about seeing all the ancient monuments there; this is what I have been waiting to do. But, I still can't help but keep a countdown of days left here (7!).

    We've had incredible weather all vacation, just narrowly missing rain everywhere. We finally got some last night and two 10 minute pours today, but it's been needed. Florence weather is great right now - mild in the daytime and quite chilly at night.

    I've lost sleep dreaming about pickpockets in Rome...it's supposed to be the worst there. I'll bypass fashion and comfort for security with the necklace pouch, I suppose. Hopefully tonight will bring good dreams. We wake at 5:45 to get to the Accademia 1hr 15min before opening. I'd rather that than a 2 hr wait since we couldn't get reservations. Then, we will try to get in the Medici chapel.

Okay, no time to update today...should be able to do it tomorrow. But, Tyler uploaded all of the wedding pictures online and I figured everyone would want to see. We haven't even looked at them yet. Enjoy!

http://www.twardphotos.com/herronwedding