I was a shiny white girl in Rome today...

The Colosseum with a little tongue!  :-)

Wow, what an amazing city!!  I LOVE Rome!!!  It is not possible to walk down any street without seeing a beautiful monument, plaza or building!! 

The Trevi Fountain!!

My first full day as I wrote prior I went to the Colleseum and the Palatine (Roman ruins).  This really set the scene for the rest of Rome for me, it was really spectacular!!!

The Ronman Forum

The Roman ruins

Yesterday Gemma and I went museum hopping.  It was so great!!  We went to the National Museum of Antique Art and the Borgese and the Capitoline.  Three museums in one day was a little over-ambitious.  I really think that two museums in one day is my max!  There is so much to absorb and take it!!  We saw Bernini sculptures which were absolutely amazing, the detail and how he could make stone look so soft and real!!  We also saw some amazing paintings by Caravaggio, Guido, Raphael just to name a few.  It really was so cool to see these original paintings in real life!!  It really makes me want to learn more about art and art history!

Today we went to a flea market which is supposed to be one of the biggest flea markets in Rome (or Italy or Europe or the world, lol!!  Gemma can't remember) but he point is that it was immense!!  But I had some fun looking through all the antiques and found a few could deals on a few items for myself.  Gotta practice those barter skills ha ha!  Then we found a narrow street that jetted off to the side.  There was a huge tourist group and guide walking out from this street and it looked so beautiful so Gemma and I decided to take a little side track and stroll down there to see what there was.  It was so pretty, a very narrow Italian street with some quiant restaurants.  It was pretty close to lunch time and with all that bargaining we had really worked up an appetite.  We ordered a delicious pizza and it really was delicious!!!  After we had a moment to rest and digest our food a little I decided to explore a little more.  So I just continued walked down this beautiful street, I didn't know exactly where I was going but I had a general idea of the direction I was heading.  I came to the end of the sweet little street directly to the Tevere river that runs north and south through the west side of Rome.  Perfecto!  So even though it wasn't a direct track back to the hostel I took a very scenic stroll along the river.  So pretty!  Then once I crossed it I lazily and with a lot of twist and turns was sort of heading in the direction back towards the hostel.  It was so great, if I saw something that looked interesting I would turn down the street and check it out.  If I heard some pretty music I would side track that way and low and behold I stumbled on to the Pantheon, wow!!  I came across many magnificent plazas with gorgeous fountains and always stopped to refill my water bottle for some refeshment.  It was lovely and another amazing day in Rome!!

I am very hot and am constantly sticky, shiny and vary degrees of sweat is dripping off of me somewhere but I don't care, I'm in Rome!!!!  Plus after a summer working in Florida I can handle anything!!

Tomorrow the Vatican City!!!!!!

That's all for now!!!