We are in Rome now and it's hot hot hot. I understand now why everyone takes siesta...it's too hot to do anything else. It's nice, though, to be 'forced' to take a break in the middle of the day, and I have taken to actually napping....So far we've seen a bunch of plazzas with cobblestones, fountains, and old buildings, the Vatican, and St. Peter's Basilica. Honestly, after a two hour line, the Vatican was not all that I hoped for...the Sistine Chapel was one of the only good parts. Too many people and no air conditioning made the place just a bit much. St. Peter's Basilica, however, was just beautiful. It put so many of the rest of the cathedrals I've seen to shame!

The line for St. Peter's was pretty amusing. It wasn't as long as the Vatican's line, but still had it's fair share of tourists queued up. We had been waiting in line for about 15 minutes, when this group of 6 six Germans came and stood right next to us in line. They didn't want to chat...they wanted to cut in front of us in line! Seriously, they were just trying to move on in. I was determined to put my foot down and NOT be the whimpy American that I am, so we had this 10 minute battle. It was intense, but eventually we prevailed and they gave up and fell into line behind us. I was very proud of myself.