I still don't quite believe that Im waking up in Rome each morning. It
doesn't seem real, although the mixture of birdsong and heavy
machinery testify otherwise- I wouldn't dream heavy machinery!
My laptop cord is incompatible with our adaptor, so I can't write yet
about either of the last two days- Im writing this from my phone,
using the hostel's wireless.
But the first day we saw the Colosseum, Palaces of Nero, of Augustus,
the Arches of Constantine and Titus, and the Circus Maximus. It's
humbling to see trees older than your entire nation growing like
saplings ruins that predate everything you know.

Yesterday we saw the Pantheon and the Vatican Museum. The Egyptian
collection of the Vatican makes even Rome feel young, and it's
humbling in ways I can't even describe. We also saw the Pope, albeit
rather by accident.

Chris says that what's most amazing to him is that there is so MUCH
history here, so MANY artifacts, that they can afford to let us just
walk up and touch the artifacts and the ruins. We sat in Augustus'
palace, touched the walls of the Pantheon, stood on fallen pillars in
the Colosseum.
It's.... Amazing.

The only real blasphemy is the refusal of joy. -"Jeffrey"