update

happy birthday mom! sorry k & i cannot be there to celebrate with you today. i hope that you spend today doing the things that make you the happiest. we both miss you & love you so so much.

we leave rome tonight for london. our flight doesn't leave until 10:00 & it should take us about 1.5 hours, so. . . that means we will not be getting into until midnight-ish. we previously booked a hostel for tonight, but considering stanstead is over an hour away from the center of london, we might just end up blowing a lot of £s on a hotel near the airport.

our time in rome has seemed brief it's hard to believe today marked our fourth day here. the heat along with the sweaty & annoyed tourists makes rome difficult at times. (i'm begining to think that every dutch & german teenager is touring rome this summer. . . we've had way too much fun watching them crowd the metro, the mcdonald's bathroom line, & every other hotspot). k & i have seen almost all the big sights now & have enjoyed our time in this old city (it is hard for me to comprehend just how old this city is), but i am getting excited for london again.

today, k & i got up, enthusiastic about going to the vatican museum (sistine chapel, etc), but once we got there, we realized there was no way in thanks to the some 80,000 people in the square! yes, it was a nightmare in this heat. even though we couldn't get in, we got to see the pope! he was speaking about this year's pilgrimage to the vatican. it had something to do with the "coetus internationalis ministrantium" movement. . . his whole speech was translated into german, so neither one of us could understand much. . . & although she was excited to see him, k was disappointed she never got to see the "pope-mobile." after fighting the crowds, we found the castle sant angelo & got to watch the end of speech from the top.

thanks to this trip, k & i have now visited the two smallest countries in the world (1. the vatican & 2. monaco). leichtenstein & some of the other little ones are still on the list.

kandyce, i thought of you all day yesterday b/c k & i spent the afternoon in orvieto. we're so thankful for your recomendation & it was the perfect day trip from rome. i cannot wait to share pics with you!

other than missing out on the vatican museum, i am truly amazed at just how much we have been able to see & do this trip. i got to everything on my list (the tate, dover beach, the louvre, versailles, l'orangerie, notre dame, monaco, venice, uffizi & accademia, the pantheon, orvieto, etc) & we're excited to see what else is ahead of us in london. only six days left!


i need to go finish packing my bag, but i hope to write again soon. . .

g.

p.s. italian keyboards make my head spin.