I'm an awful person, but i love italy

Indeed, i'm horrible. I haven't posted in ages and i feel badly about it. So classes have resumed, i came out of the first half of the term unscathed grade wise, however my sanity may have really taken a beating. Alex would agree with me that I'm even more of a crazy woman than before, and it has much less to do with me being a woman, and much more to do with a general loss of meaningful neurosynapses. So while I'm currently out of food because I've refused to go grocery shopping, and I'm in desperate need of some clean clothes so I can begin looking cute again, I thought I'd shirk these responsibilities and write here instead. 

Italy was possibly the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life. Again, 2 days in Rome, 1 in Venice, and 1 in Florence. To begin with, don't ever let someone fool you into thinking that Stanstead airport is close to London. It takes at least an hour and fifteen minutes to get there, and then you still have to fly! Ryanair is nice, and minus the frigid temperature of our plane, we got to Rome in one piece. Its surreal to show up somewhere and not know the language, be completely lost from the get-go, and yet feel somehow connected. I don't know more than 4 words in Italian (Grazie, Prego, Pronto, Si, etc...) but on the long bus ride into Rome central from Ciampino airport, all I could think of was the ride from SanJuan to Fajardo in Puerto Rico. The air smelled similar, the radio stations sounded the same, and the scenery was somehow identical. Life is full of deja vu I guess. Our hostel was nice enough, safe, and there was a man with a huge fro who insisted on pushing this little cafe downstairs (you get cappucino and croissant for only 5 euro...). We saw the Colloseum, Palatine Hill, The tomb of the unknown soldier, and the Trevi Fountain the first day. Save for being freezing it was perfect. Some italian man did insist on telling Lisa that she was 21 instead of 20 once, but I would say that was the strangest thing that happened. Also, the pasta is fresh there and along with good house wines, Italy won my culinary heart.

Day two was the Vatican. Seriously, even if your not Catholic, even if you aren't Christian, you should see the Vatican. The Musei Vaticani is nothing less than dumbfounding. There are so many frescos your head will spin. The Sistine Chapel is much smaller than you'd think, The paintings are even more amazing than in the pictures, and apparently the way Spaniards say "what d'ya want me to do about it?!" when they walk in front of your pictures is "iiieeee!". It happened. St. Peters Basilica is also incredible. Its expansive and could make even the most staunch anti-catholic stop and think. I saw John Paul II's tomb; I sunned myself in the piazza in front, and I saw Swiss guards in ridiculous clothes.

More on Venice and Florence next.