where was i now?

it's so damn hard to find a place to get to the internet here. i finally found some ghetto place by our apartment that charges next to nothing.

we took a 4 hour tour of palatine hill, the forum and the colosseum. palatine hill was very impressive. it was more or less like the beverly hills back in its heyday. it's hard to imagine how big those palaces were. we walked around the forum but really couldn't spend too much time there due to the crowds and the colosseum was about to close. the colosseum was really cool. i will have to post pictures later.

note to self and others. do not come to rome during holy week. it is one of the most popular times to come here. the crowds can be unbearable and can make it difficult to walk through all the small alley streets.

another question is, why do americans have to wear white sneakers, fanny packs, and usa shirts when they're abroad? it's so ridiculous. we went to some drink stand near the colosseum to buy a bottle of water. the guy charged jane american ahead of us 5€ for a bottle of water, charged us 1€ (maybe because of mauricio's fine italian speaking), charged joe american behind us 5€ for a bottle of fanta. funny thing is, the stupid americans actually paid those prices. no wonder americans think it's SOOO expensive here.

i haven't seen the gangs of pickpocket kids that i heard so much about in the states. i felt pretty safe on the buses and trains. i noticed at least one pickpocket each time i took the main tourist busline. the pickpockets i did see on the bus were very well dressed and you wouldn't be able to tell they were cons just by looking at them.

fashion - in regards to fashion, i wouldn't necessarily say that the romans/italians are much more fashionable than LA, SF or NY. if anything it's just different. we noticed a lot of women rocking cowboy boots. puffy jackets with fake fur collars. thick eyeliner. lots of perfume/cologne. men wear lots of hair product. i thought a lot of italians dressed similar to us. jeans, track jacket, and adidas/pumas/or nike trainers.

yesterday we took a five hour tour of the vatican museum and st. peter's basilica. the line to get into the vatican museum must of been about 1/2 a mile long. luckily our tour guide got there early and squatted in line before the tour. so we really only had to wait about 10 minutes. i highly recommend a small tour. there were only 5 of us on the tour. our tour was led by some academic guy that had a ph.d in art history and it felt very much like a seminar in college. the small group setting enabled me to ask as many questions as i wanted. i really enjoyed it. most of the tours had about 20-30 ppl in them with the leader holding some cheesy flag in the front to lead them. it seemed much less personal.

all i can say is crowded, crowded, crowded. i would not suggest for those that are extremely claustrophobic or anxiety in crowds. i started to freak out at the beginning of the tour, but i made it out ok. the key for me was to not stare at the crowds, but look above the crowds or at the ceiling. my favorites were the room of maps, school of athens by raphael and of course the sistine chapel. from there we went to st. peter's basilica, huge! saw michelangelo's pietà behind the bullet glass window. i really can't describe my experience here. i have to post pictures.