Buongiornio!

Well, we're in Rome!  All of us.  And all of our baggage.  Success!  However, we're exhausted.  I don't mean the kind of tired where you just had a long day but you're pleasantly beat.  I mean the kind of tired where you can hardly walk straight because you slept for, at best, one hour last night.  [Or maybe that's not all of us--maybe that's just me.  Those of you who know me know that I can usually fall asleep anywhere, any time.  Last night, however, was unfortunately not the case, and now I'm paying for it big time.]  

Anyway, after arriving in Rome this morning, we took a giant tour bus from the airport to the hotel to stow our bags for the day.  Then we headed out and trekked around the city all day.  Saw about 129 beautiful churches, lots of gorgeous piazzas, ruins of the ancient Roman forum, the Trevi Fountain (it was a lot smaller than expected), the Italian president's house (basically the equivalent of our White House) Spanish steps in the Piazza di Spagna, and finally, Villa Medici and its beautiful Renaissance era gardens.  I was particularly enamored with the giant stone pines scattered around the garden.  Oh, and I forgot perhaps the best part of the day--eating!  Most of us ate pizza or calzone-ish things (pretty sure they called it something different) around the Trevi Fountain, followed by gelato.  I am learning to say only the most fundamental things, like "How much does this cost?"

Overall, the sentiment is that we are all exhausted and sleep-deprived and our feet hurt (especially mine and Alex's.)  However, we're also in awe of how much we saw and did today in relatively little time.  But the night is still young... we're having dinner all together with our tour guide Edi in a little while--if we can stay awake.