Rome

A gelateria on every corner, smoke-filled cafes, and oversized sunglasses all seem to be staples of Rome. The city itself has such contrasting areas. One street can be trash-filled and urine-smelling but the next can contain ruins some 2000 years old. The ancient city with the colosseum and the roman forum is smack dab in the middle of Rome. It was almost a surreal experience to be walking around the area (probably could have been moreso if not for the tourist horde!). Had some fun hamming it up with some of the statues and on the circo massimo - you can check out the pictures at the bottom, and yes I know I'm a huge nerdbomber.

On my second day in the city I spent a good chunk of it at Porta Portese - Rome's largest flea market - with Roxanne. It was Rox's last full day so she was on a bit of a bargain shopping spree and really seemed to enjoy the rush from bargaining. It was great to do some haggling at the market itself as it reminded me of south east asia. One of the more comical things were the illegal vendors. From what I can gather you need a permit to sell your goods at the market, however a bunch of sellers, usually foreigners, were setting up shop in the middle of the lane without one. Where the fun came in was when the police showed up and all of a sudden there was 4 or 5 guys from Africa or the Middle East with 50 fake prada purses between them booking it in the other direction. I've seen this a few times now in Italy and will have to try and grab a video of it when I get the chance!

The next day in town, I spent with my parents at the Vatican city. No joke the line for the Vatican museum must have been 1km long but my Dad budged in somewhere near the front (setting a great example there!) and luckily we managed to get inside in about 10 minutes or so. The sheer collection of art in this museum was staggering and the sistine chapel did not disappoint at all. Even as someone who does not usually enjoy museums I really enjoyed myself. Unfortunately in some areas no flash photography was allowed and in others no photography of any sort so I have few pictures and most of these are of the blurry variety.

The real highlight of Italy so far may just be the food however. I've been chowing down on gnocchi for the past few days and gelato seems to have become a daily staple of my diet. The people here are for the most part very friendly and helpful, italian women are unbelievably stylish (read: hot) and it's been fun trying out my backpacker's italian. While there is still an abudance of trendy mullets among the guys, it's a little more toned down than it was in Portugal. The flamboyance seems to be mainly in the shoes - I don't think I've ever seen so many shiny golden shoes in one city before.

Unfortunately it wasn't all peachy on this leg of the trip - my mp3 player broke down (a backpackers nightmare), my parents were mugged on the metro, my dad's luggage was delayed for a day and my mom's is still MIA after 6 days. I know you have to take the ups with some downs but after this stretch hopefully it's smooth sailing for the rest of the trip!

The family vacation ended in Rome - Roxanne is now back in Canada, Mom and Dad flew to Paris on the 15th and I headed north to Florence and then on to the Cinque Terre. Hope all is well with everyone.

Ciao,

Jon

Outside one of the Santa Maria chuches

Roxanne pretending to be a bug with her oversized Italian sunglasses outside Porta Portese

'Racing' along the Circo Massimo

Hammin it up, SPQR style.

Piazza Vittoria Emanuele II - where Mussolini gave his addresses

The Colosseum

Roman Forum

Sunset over Rome

The Last Judgement (I think) - in the Sistine Chapel

Me, Mom & Dad outside Saint Peter's Basilica