Ciao, Roma....

So today we said goodbye to Roma.... And what a sad day it was...

So Sunday night we went back into the city to this huge outdoor market. There was a bunch of crap for sale so we did a lot of browsing and even more people watching. The people here are so fun to watch, mostly because they are either really crazy or insanely beautiful. Italian people are so attractive. One of the waiters at the Marriott should honestly set himself up in a museum and start charging. I´d have paid for SURE but I got it for free! But I´m getting off track. After we left the market, we ate at the most amazing restaurant I have ever seen.

It was in an alley against a building covered with ivy, lit lanterns everywhere, old Italian guys playing accordians and guitars, and pasta. OH the pasta. It was unbelievable. It was seriously one of the most beautiful settings I have ever been in. I took lots of pictures but you´re going to have to wait to see them.

Monday morning we got up and went to the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum. If the waiter wasn´t enough, there were a few security guys at the Vatican that could have been side exhibits. Megann had to hold me back from doing something illegal to get tackled by them. But the Sistine Chapel was incredible. Other than the workers yelling at the top of their lungs ¨Silencio! No Fotos!¨about every 8 seconds. That definitely didn´t help. I thought I´d be sneaky and take one anyways (like about half of the people in there were doing) but totally got busted by one of the yellers. He said ¨no fotos¨to me about 86 times in the course of half a minute. Even after my camera was off and in my purse! It was funny! It was really really pretty and there was so much to look at. It´s kinda funny to walk into a room where every single person is looking at the ceiling. And it´s impossible to keep your mouth closed when you´re looking up so it´s like 300 people all staring up with their mouths open when you first walk in. I started laughing and then totally joined the crowd. It was really incredible. I was just expecting the finger-touching picture (which is totally making me laugh at the Arrested Development episode but Kevin and Jen might be the only ones laughing with me. Or the Simpsons episode with Mr. Burns. One of the two) but there is so much on that ceiling. It is huge and that picture is like 1/20 of it. Wow.

After that we walked around for a bit and saw the Church of the Bones. It´s in a pretty busy part of the city by the US Embassy and looks like a normal church on the outside. It looks out of place because its surrounded by banks and huge hotels, but it looks like a very unassuming church from the outside. It´s run by a lady who sits at a desk and asks for donations and from that room, still, just looks like an innocent little church... And then you walk inside...

The church is decorated with bones. Human bones. And when I say decorated I mean like Grandma Smith style decorations. There are bones EVERYWHERE. Little vertebrae hooked together to form a border of the arch way. Skulls and pelvises hooked together and hung on the wall. Chandeliers made up of arm bones. Knee caps formed into flowers. Full skeletons hung from the ceilings. And to top it off, a sign at the end that says ¨What you are, we were. What we are now, you will be.¨ Creepiest and coolest place ever. And then they start playing this haunting organ music and it´s just creepy. There are bones nailed to the ceiling and I just knew one of them would fall and hit me in the face or something.

Probably the funniest thing about packing to get home was my unfortunate shopping habit. See, unfortunately the streets are lined with fake Prada handbags. And I may have purchased a few. Well, six. I bought six. Some of them are gifts so don´t think I´m THAT crazy, but I ended up having to carry one purse with all my stuff and another purse stuffed with other purses as my other carry-on for the flight home. I know I´m a total moron! I realize that! And I looked even cooler with my huge purses on the plane.

I´m back in Spain for a few more days and leave for Romania on Saturday. It will be nice to get some laundry done (my clothes are the stinkiest) and get some good sleep. We´re hoping to catch the Dark Knight while we´re here so don´t tell me anything about it!

Okay this has been super long. But I love you all and will see everyone soon!