I am spending all this week in Italy and just finished three days in Rome. In order to stay on top of this blogging thing I'm writing this entry from a hostel with limits on internet access, so I don't have as much time as I usually do to put an entry together, but I'll do my best.

We flew in to Rome on Friday morning and my first $35 EasyJet experience went like this: arrive at gate 30 minutes before takeoff, plane arrives 5 minutes before takeoff, mad rush for boarding, takeoff, nauseating plane ride and landing, retreive baggage which was deformed in transit, and finally head outside to greet Rome. Then, after about 2 hours of public transportation we arrived at our campsite. Yep, campsite. We booked a bungalow for 3 days... in the outskirts of Rome. Oops.

The rest of the trip went really well. The first time we stepped out of the Metro we saw the Colisseum immediately in front of us and it was incredibly impressive. We went around it and inside it, took lots of pictures and tried to wrap our heads around how much history was in the walls of this building. Also, it was so strange, but I couldn't believe how such a famous landmark could be located on just an average street corner. I'm pretty sure that if the colisseum was in the US it would be encompassed by acres of parks; instead, this massive historical spectacle is basically surrounded by sidewalks and busy streets. From one side of the Colisseum you could look out and see the Roman Forum (lots of ruins) and again try to process just how old everything around you is. The weather was perfect all weekend even though it was supposed to rain, so we really lucked out and enjoyed it all.

While I should write more about all of the awesome sights in Rome, I feel like I owe a few sentences to the Italian food. Thanks to my infallible Western Europe guidebook we ate in what must have been some of the best and most affordable restaurants in the city. The first night I had a veal dish with proscuitto and mozzarella and the meat cut like butter. I've eaten my share of good veal before, but this was incredible. And James's veal saltimbucca was far and away the best I've ever tried. The next night I had pear and walnut tortellini which was very unique and definitely worth trying to recreate... or having someone who can cook recreate. I also had lots of gelatto which was quite good. Calories well spent- I'll just have to keep that in mind when I'm kicking myself at the end of the week.

Now, I'm off to Florence to check out the Tuscan region of this country and see if that David statue is all it's cracked up to be .