Italy

Its been a few days since we wrote so we are gonna take a few to catch the rest of the world up to date.

After we left Swiss land we headed on an overnight to Rome. It started out really well. We went and sat outside the train station to watch the sunset and we started to talk with another couple that was traveling around. When time got closer we found out that they were in our cabin, so that was kinda cool and random. we were on the top bunks on a 6 bed couchette (sleeper car) and by about 1am we both woke up drenched in sweat and had to get off our bunk...it was extremely hot up there so we didnt end up getting too much sleep on our second overnight trip. Once we arrived in Rome we checked into our hostel and went to tour the Vatican- I was about 3 blocks away from our hostel. We ended up spending all day at there, its huge and has lots of things to soak in. When we first arrived the pope was having a special mass out in the courtyard so we actually got to see the pope in person. We shook his hand.....ok just kidding, but it was still amazing. Once they cleared out the pope and all the other people we toured St. Peter's Basilica we walked around there for probably an hour or more just looking at the amazing art and also where the deceased popes final resting place is. Probably one of our most treasured experiences at the Basilica was attending a mass inside the Basilica...how many people do you know that have gone to mass at st peter's basilica and received communion?!?! we were on cloud 9 after that. Directly after we got out of mass we went to see the Sistine Chapel and Amanda took a lot/way too many picture. In the room with the Creation of Adam (the picture of god and Adam touching fingers) we managed to sneak a prohibited picture it so we thought we were verrrrrry sneaky.

throughout our trip we have been running into people that we hung out with in other cities or roomed with at a hostel somewhere along the line. We had made friends with 6 male med students from Oklahoma in Swizterland and randomly ran into them again at the sistine chapel.

The next day we walked around the Colosseum in Rome and then walked across the street to the giant park (the name slipped my mind at the moment). We didnt get to spend as much time as we wanted in Rome because of scheduling stuff but the time we spent we did a lot of stuff and got to see some beautiful art.

After Rome we headed to Cinque Terre which is 5 cities on the italy coast that are within walking distance of each other...or should I say hiking distances. The first night we decided to just wing it and showed up without reservation, the first town we went to was so small they has no hostels or cheap places to stay so we went to another town called Manarossa. Its the biggest of the 5 towns. Again we got here and couldnt find anywhere to stay that was cheap and saw a group of women with big backpacks walking up a hill. So of course we walked up and asked if they knew of any cheap places. Long story short by the time we got to a motel with them it was too late to book and this local lady offered all 7 of us a place in her empty apartment. so we spent the night with our new 5 friends from Virginia. The second day we spent on the beach and ended up talking with some nice aussies and found out that there are jellyfish in the water. One of the guy aussies actually got stung and had a jelly fish welt to prove it. No thank you. We found out that America does Supersize things and that portions are much smaller in Europe. we ordered a pasta meal and after we finished probably each could have had 3 more helpings.

Today we spent hiking between towns. We caught wind of a nude beach so of course when in Italy do what the Italians do...right?!?!? So we hiked to this ' natural beach' and spent all day running and swimming naked. Here too there were a lot of jellyfish and they seemed to come in packs. We were lucky because when we first arrived we got in the water and swam out a bit just to get out and didnt see or get stung. When we got back we noticed they were all over and people were literally scooping them out and throwing them on the beach. Dad (Dan) you would have been proud of me because (a) I ventured to a nude beach (b) I body surfed all day (c) I didnt get stung or injured while I was there :). It was funny we thought at one point so if we do get stung by a jellyfish on our butt what exactly will we tell people later on.....ha The hike out was tiring but it ended up being perfect. On the way up it got so steep in places that there was a rope attached to a tree so that you could pull yourself while trying to walk straight uphill. We arrived in another one of the towns (Vernazza) and ate our 'dinner'. Our dinner consisted of water....lots of water, gelato (grande size of course)- we decided this gelato was the best we had ever had probably because we were so tired and hot, then pesto pasta, followed by another large gelato cone. On the walk back Kyle got a really bad stomach ache (we arent sure why ;) so we kinda called it a night there.

While at Cinque Terre we spent most of our hours on the beach, Im not impressed with the Mediterranean sea, it doesnt compare to Oregon or Hawaii waves. There was actually a few nights that we thought we were going to have to sleep on the beach because we couldnt find anywhere to stay but luckily it all worked out in the end.

Tomorrow we start our journey to Spain but wont actually get there till the following day. We heard that a trip to Pamplona will be really hard to do because everything is booked but hopefully it will come through.

We have to find a computer to put the Rome pictures and Cinque Terre pictures so come back to this blog later to look for the link.

Spain is our last country so its a weird feeling to almost be done. Neither of us wants to come back to the real world but we know its inevitable..

Happy Fourth of July to all who read and we love you

ITALY PICTURES