Neither words nor pictures can describe the beauty, detail, and overall emotion of what I felt and saw during my visit to the Vatican City. If you ever get the chance to come to Italy you must go to the Basilica di San Pietro (St. Peter's Basilica)...it should be a goal in life. Sorry didn't mean to get deep and introspective. Anyways, I spent most of my third day at the Vatican City. I started off with the Vatican Museums (unknowingly saving the best for last). This place is just a maze of rooms and galleries filled with hundreds and hundreds of pieces of art such as sculptures, paintings, tapestries, and maps. I went through this place fairly quickly as I was eager to see the Sistine Chapel. However, some of the galleries were breath taking, ... read more

Sorry to anyone who's been waiting by the seat of their pants for my blog posts but wait no more I have 3 days worth of Roman adventures! I'm going to post an individual blog for each day so it's not one huge post. I would have done the posts by day in Rome but it cost 27 euro a day to use the internet at the hotel I was staying at so I opted to wait until I returned to Vicenza where I have free internet! Well day one began with a lovel 4 1/2 hour train ride. A good friend of mine got me 3 free nights at the Hilton because he is a frequent hotel roomer. If this had not been the case I would not have been able to spend as much ... read more

Well I finally ventured outside the walls of Vicenza and took my first trip to Venezia (Venice). Awesome! I woke up at 7:30 to catch the 8:30 train. The station is a bout a 10min walk. I got my ticket but for some reason the ticket guy gave me a ticket for the 9:00 train that had a connection in Padova...so I called Cristina concerned and she just told me to get on the 8:30 and if they said anything to just act like a clueless tourist. So I did just that with no problems! About 10 mins into my train ride I started feeling very nauseaus and looking for a bathroom sign in case I had to make a quick run to puke. It was horrible! The AC wasn't too great so feeling hot and ... read more

Well I've been in Vicenza for about 3 days now! It is beautiful! My friend whose apt I'm staying at put me in contact with one of his friends who lives here since he is away in Afghanistan. Her name is Cristina also and she picked me up from the airport which was nice since it is almost an hour drive! There aren't really any rules on the highway which was quite interesting. So we got into town and unless you have a resident permit you can't drive through downtown so we parked the car in a lot and I rolled my 60 lb suitcase across the square. The elevator to the apt. barely fit the two Christina's and 60lb suitcase but we managed. The apt is so cute and is right downtown so I've been ... read more