Venice and Rome

Well, now that I have some time to sit down (and free internet usage in the hotel room), I can expand a little more on the trip.

Venice was very interesting. We arrived on my birthday (the 8th), which also happened to be the last day of Carivale so there were tons of people in elaborate costumes and masks, and tourists in funny hats, masks and with their faces painted. I took the first opportunity to have my face painted, and later on in the night, after a nap rubbed it off on my pillow, I bought myself a mask to wear. I couldnt convice James to do anything like that, though.... I even threatened to throw him in the canal and he still wouldnt.

St. Marks square was....well, squarey. hehe. It had hoards of people in it because of Carnival, and even more pidgeons. I bought some corn to feed them, despite James's objections that they ruin the art, so you shouldnt feed them. I have a classic picture of my arms covered with at least 10 birds. One even landed on my head, but theres no picture of that....James said it was disaster waiting to happen so he shooed it away..

The basillica was impressive...very elaborate mosaics but it paled in comparison to Notre Dame. We didnt bother going into the Doge's Palace. Walking around Venice was quite time consuming... we got lost a couple of times, and we walked for a really long time. The buildings are so close together there that you never feel the sun, it only touches the tops of the buildings.

So after Venice, we took a train to Rome. We missed the train we intended on taking, because James forgot his passport in the hotel room and he had to run back and get it. We only got in 1 hour later than we intended though. Our first view of Rome after leaving the train station was of the Collesium. Its really and impressive site. What I found most interesting, however, is that the reason its missing so much is because parts of it were plundered and used to build St. Pauls Cathedral. We learned about that on the tour we took today.

Last night, however, we had an amazing, although really expensive, meal. The waiter, Ricardo, was really friendly. He gave me a poster, with a drawing of the Collesium, and bought James and I a free glass of a dessert wine. He also gave me big hugs when he learned it was my birthday 2 days ago.

Today we took tours (as I mentioned) of the Collesium and the Forum, the ancient center of Rome. We hope to take a tour of the Vatican tomorrow, if we can get there in time... it starts at 930am.

I wish I had pictures to share right now, but for some reason we cant download them off of the camera. Thats starting to become a problem because we only have enough room on the card for about 100 more pictures. Weve already taken around 420 pictures! I imagine tomorrow well take at least 100 pictures at the Cathedral alone.

That's it for now,

Chao!