Aujourd'hui

WOAH what a cool day!
So this morning my family and I FIGURED OUT HOW TO MAKE COFFEE. I'm pretty excited about that. Making coffee in Europe is difficult. You have to boil the liquid in the bottom of this metal contraption enough to make it spout out the top into ANOTHER container...to fill it with coffee? Trust me. It's difficult.

After we ate breakfast and hung out, we went to visit the Sistine Chapel. We saw all of the stuff in Vatican City that you really NEED to see, including the cool sculptures, paintings, and metalwork. It was super neat, but honestly, by the end of all of it, I was beat all to hell. I just wanted to eat and sleep.

First came the eating, which was at this mediocre place inside the walls of Vatican City. We got the usual...something with potatoes, and lasagna with pomodoro, and nothing was good enough to even mention. After that we came back to the apartment and I tried to upload pictures, which was unsuccessful because the internet connection was stupid/slow. Then I slept for about 30 minutes.

After I slept, we went out. We took the bus to the Spanish steps, which are infested with tourists and Romans alike, along with freaking Gypsies who try to assault you with roses. That wasn't great, but we stopped for dinner at this cute little place off of a backroad that ended up being quite tasty. Jeremy started with a plate of spaghetti, and ended with pizza; my dad had ravioli, beef stuffed with orange, and buffalo mozzarella with tomatoes. My mom and I split a bottle of Chianti Classico and ate mixed salads (WAY too much arugula) and I had the seabass with (again) roasted potatoes, and my mom had crepes stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese served in a tomato sauce. Everything was really great.

Now I'm back at home, stealing wi-fi from some poor Roman soul. I've had my nightly limoncello and I'm about to head to bed. I'm sleeping as LATE as possible tomorrow. My parents/brother are going to the top of the dome of St. Peter's basilica, and I have such a phobia of heights that it's not even worth it for me to make the climb. I will have to crawl, which is humiliating. Instead, I'm going to sleep and make more Italian coffee and eat my Coco Crispies. After the dome my mother and I will be headed to the ritzy shops that neither of us can afford. We're going to look around, and I'm going to try to find CJ some sort of fancy wallet that doesn't spend the rest of my euros.

I hope everyone has a great night, I'm sure I'll be posting tomorrow about how AWESOME everything is. :) Ciao!