Rome Day Zero:
I'm saying this isn't day one since I got in at 11pm and all I did was take the train into the city and then a taxi to the hotel. There was a notable event, however, in that we thought Jeff had a double room at the hotel and that I'd be able to stay there: WE WERE WRONG. I got another room. All worked out.
Rome Day one:
WELL: It rained all morning, like, torrential downpour, scary thunder, but then it disappeared and looked as though it had never happened. However, as it was raining, I was walking from the hotel to the Colosseum, stopped at the tomb of the unknown soldier, and just generally got completely soaked.
I stayed inside the Colosseum until the worst of it was over, although it didn't help much. It was raining so hard that walls of mist hit those of us hiding under the roof. Once the rain stopped, though, it was really beautiful and the Colosseum was amazing. My favorite part, though, was a cat sitting in the shade at the Colosseum, not even knowing where it was.
I went to the forum next, but already my feet were starting to hurt, probably because: damp socks. My favorite part of the forum were the heads of columns just sitting on the ground, and the sign that pointed out the place where legend said the earth and the underworld met. And this bird: 
Walked toward the pantheon and ran into a guy from Canada going the same way, and as we were both alone we decided to go together. The pantheon was probably my favorite site from that day. It was really gorgeous, and I have seen so many churches that follow the same design, and this was so different, I just loved it. But there were WAYYY too many people inside... 
Well, considering Rome is one of the most famous tourist destinations, I suppose I can't complain when I want to join the hordes.
Michael (the Canadian) and I had lunch across the street from the pantheon, and when I was halfway through my lasagna, a dog came up, put his front paws on my lap, and starting trying to lick my plate. It was pretty funny, mostly because the owner didn't catch up until almost a minute later and didn't really do much of anything about it besides take the dog away and leash it. Good thing I like dogs!
We then walked to Trevi Fountain, but that was so disappointing because it's undergoing serious renovations right now so there's no water, and a plastic see-through wall surrounding the whole thing. Boo!
Then, Michael and I parted ways, and I went to the hotel to get some info from Jeff about how to get to the place I was staying in, the couch of a lady from airbnb (we decided to book that because the hotel was way too expensive). Then I went to the phone store to see if I could figure out my phone situation, which didn't happen.. but I saw the CRAZIEST thing happen on my way there. I was waiting at a crosswalk, and this man started crossing the street with his bike during the green light. There was a constant flow of cars, and what did he do to keep them at bay? He literally held a giant spike in his hand, something that reminded me of a railroad spike, and just jabbed it toward the cars' tires. No one even honked at him. They just let him go. Well, anyway, I then took a bus down to the apartment. I was so tired! But I still had to go back to Jeff's hotel to get the rest of my stuff. Once I did that and got back, I basically just fell asleep...
Day two:
Started out a little later because I didn't set an alarm and woke up around 9:30 when my host was leaving for school. Michael, who I had friended on facebook, was going to the Vatican that day, and we had tentatively planned to meet there, which anyone who has ever been to the Vatican would know to be just about impossible. The place is huge. I went to a cafe to get breakfast, then walked (only about ten minutes) to the Vatican! First standing in line for a while to get into Saint Peter's Basilica, which was amazing of course. I listened to Rick Steve's audio guide about it, and loved seeing on the floor the inscriptions marking where other, lesser churches ended. (The Basilica is two football fields in length and the dome is one... it's big). 
After that, I left and wandered, trying to figure out how to get to the Vatican museum, and of course, to the Sistine Chapel. It took me a bit to understand that, even though you can see the buildings from the plaza, you have to walk all the way around to get to the entrance. Oy. I finally made it, though, and walked through the museum. They know what people are there for: they have a "Sistine Chapel short track" where you can just skip the museum and go straight to the chapel, but I at least wanted to see what else they had there. It was really funny seeing things like Salvador Dali in a place like the Vatican, I just felt like they didn't really belong. The Sistine Chapel is definitely worth it. It really was just gorgeous. It was fascinating listening to the audio guide (Rick Steve's again) and hearing about everything: how the first paintings had smaller figures, but he didn't like how small they were, so everything about that was bigger and more impressive. Then seeing the wall, how his whole attitude about mercy had changed, and seeing justice instead. Then, in the corners, they had left a few patches of the frescos uncleaned, so you could see just how dark it had been before the renovations. And I KNOW: no pictures... but I'm a bad person. 
Besides, they're just bad cell phone pictures...
After I finished the Vatican, I went back to my room and sat for a bit, then Jeff and I decided to meet for dinner in Piazza Navona. We ended up walking down to Campo di Fiori, another plaza, and eating there, then eventually just walking back up to the bus stop so I could take the bus back to the apartment.
Day Three:
We had a ride-share from Rome to Pompeii at noon, so we decided in the meantime to go to a Monestery Jeff had heard about that, sometime in the 1700s, an artist had decorated in a very strange room. Basically, this anonymous guy decided to dig up the bones of all the monks buried there and arrange them in several rooms with various designs. So one room was the skull room, one the pelvis bone room, etc, and throughout were bones of all types forming beautifully creepy patterns on the walls and ceilings, as well as several intact skeletons, still dressed in their monks' robes, lounging in various places. It was definitely the coolest and weirdest Monastery I've ever been to!
We left there, took the metro to our meeting point, and drove with Settitmio and another fellow traveler, Miguel, down to Pompeii. Miguel was a Mexican student studying for a semester in Milan and traveling now that school was out. He was staying in Naples, but decided to come down to Pompeii with us so as to explore the ruins for a while before going to his hostel. We went with him, and we all got audio guides and wandered around the ruins for a while (like 2.5 hours). My favorite parts were the baths and the house of the faun. 
There was a lot that was closed, and we actually only explored probably about a third of it, but I felt pretty good about what we saw. We had planned to friend Miguel on facebook but never found him, so I guess he was just our friend for a day. Finally, we had dinner in the restaurant above the train station, and crashed. I'm about two days behind now, but our wifi-having has been sporadic at best and I only just finished editing these pictures. I will try to keep posting! But know that so far, all is well and beautiful in Italia!
Ciao!
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