15 Hours and we are here....exhausted!!!

Ciao! We made it to Rome. We spent the day at the Vatican...and we are tired. Neither Kris or I slept on the plane so we have been awake now for 31 hours. We just ate our first gelato and we are headed back to our room to pass out!! The Vatican was great, amazing....and really old. The Sistine chapel wasnt anything like I imagined it...and St. Peters was great! I would love to spend more time there!

Love to all.... Leah

I also wanted to chime in real quick. We are finding that getting around the city is a little tougher than we had first imagined. We spent a good 45 minutes after we got off the metro trying to find our hotel, even though we had "explicit" directions and a good address. We have also had several occassions where we had the map turned the wrong way and ended up further away from our destination than we first started. I don't know that Rome is that difficult to navigate, but with the lack of sleep and the lack of time to bruch up on our Italian, it is proving to be a relatively difficult task so far - we are hoping to do a little better tomorrow.

Like Leah metnioned, most all of our day was spent at the vatican. I can't stress enough how spectacular it is in person. You can see movies and pictures, and they will never do it justice. The first part of the tour was spent int he vatican museum, which was full of more sculptures, frescoes, and tapestries than you would ever believe lived in one place. After the museum, they took us to the Sistine Chapel. This was absolutely breathtaking. Like Leah metioned, the chapel itself was not ornate with sculptures or woodwork or marble - it was entirely decorated by frescoes, but they were so amazing that you really didn't notice the other stuff "missing". Michaelangelos frescoes were absolutely apectacular. We stood there and stared for 15 straight mitues, and it felt like we we were rushing through - this is definitely something that I am happy I did before I die. Lastly, we hit St. Peter's Basilica. While the Sistine Chapel was spectacular in its own understated way, St. Peter's basilica was overwhelming in its sheer magnitude. Everything was huge and extrememly detailed. It was incredible to me how even the "minor" works in the Basilica would likely stand out on their own in most any other museum. I have never quite seen anything like ever before in my life.

Of course, after walking for four striahgt hours after the plane ride, we took some time to just sit on the steps in St. Peter's sqaure and just tried to take it all in. It seemed very surreal in that we were actually sitting right there in a place that almost seemed like a fantasy when seeing it in movies and pictures. Overall, the day was great, and I hope that I get as much out of each successive day on this trip.

I better get to bed, but we wanted to be sure and get an update in tonight before we shut things down for the evening. Hopefully, we will have some pictures to post tomorrow.

Ok, I'm back...I think the thing that suprises me the most so far is how un-foreign I feel...sure there is a little bit of a language barrier but for the most part its easy to figure everything else (well except for getting our bearings on how to navigate the city)....ok, good night!