If you didn't see it the first time don't expect to see it when you haven't planned it out for the second trip. This should be my motto from now on. I went to Rome to day and was SO disapointed. I desperately wanted to see the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican museum. Who the hell knew they closed at 12:30PM on a Saturday?!? Nothing closes that early in the States. I was so pissed. To top that off it was raining, couldn't find another museum I was looking for in the guide book and I ran into some kind of rally. Actually, it was a Communist rally supporting the Palestinians against America and Israel. Actually, they were pretty much against the entire Western World. Anyway, I wander over towards another Piazza (there are a million of them) and there were police dressed up in all of their riot gear with shields and mace. Basically the whole nine yards. Red flags start going off in my head right away. All of the other tourists are standing around, taking pictures and enjoying the show. I figured this could get ugly so I started footing over to the Metra so that a bad day doesn't get any worse. So glad I did that. When I looked down the street the protesters were coming down they filled the street and the march had to have been almost a mile long. They got a lot of Pinkos in Italy!

Hopped my not so happy but very tired ass on the train and shot back to Beautiful quiet Florence... Rome just is Not working with me on this trip. I will visit her again when she changes her attitude and wants me to have fun there. Right now Rome is just being a bitch!

I have officially taken 'Climb the Duomo' off of my things to do while in Italy. I found a much better solution. There is a bell tower right next to the Duomo and I noticed that there is never a line so I opted for that yesterday. Talk about a workout! There are over 400 steps to the top of the tower (Not quite as tall as the Duomo) and they make you pay 5 Euro (a little less than $5) to work your ass off and get to the top. Let me tell you that it is all worth it. The view was breathtaking. There was a pretty heavy set woman who I passed on the way up the tower. I didn't think she would make it but old girl did it. I almost applauded when I saw her huffing up those last few stairs. Hell, it was hard for me. I can only imagine what it was like for her!

Today I am in Pisa. This town is GORGEOUS! It doesn't seem as crazy as Florence and there are students everywhere. Saw the tower. Yup, it leans. Didn't climb it. After reading all the stuff they had to do to keep it from completing it's downward journey which was started some 1000 years ago I figured I would admire it from the ground. Besides, I'm still hurting from yesterdays bell tower! Can't wait to get back and post my pictures!

Yesterday I wandered around Florence looking for another cool church. You could be blind and wander into a cool church NORMALLY. Well, I ended up at San Lorenz (sp). I thought, "This must be a cool church because there is a line to get in." When I got to the front of the line I thought this must really be a cool church because they are charging 2.50 Euro admission. Well smack my ass and call me Mildred if this church wasn't the biggest disappointment yet. There was construction everywhere and I didn't know any of the artists (my own ignorance). There was one cool fresco that I wanted a picture of but couldn't really get a good shot because there was a light directly in front of the fresco. Wandered out of that hole and found the street market. Talk about cool. There was more dead cow (leather) there than during the slaughter from hoof and mouth disease! Got a nice leather wallet and some shoes.

Don't think I'm going to climb that damn Duomo. Everytime I walk by it there is this huge ass line! But I think I have decided to go back to Rome for a day trip and I might climb to the top of St. Peter's! I MUST see the Sistine (sp) chapel before I leave Italy. Oh, did I mention how good the wine is here? If I didn't then let me tell you it's pretty damn good and really cheap. You can get a good bottle of wine for under $4.00. Jim and I finish off about two bottles a night. Hey the stuff is like water here and goes down just as easily! :-)

OK, let me just say that the keyboards here in Europe are NOT like the ones we are used to in the states. I have tried to update my journal on a couple of occassions but because I hit the wrong key all of my work has vanished into digital heaven! Anyway, on with the show. My friend Jim and I were in Rome this weekend and we had a fabulous time. We did the quicky tourist thing. We saw the Trevi, the colosseum, the Vatican and some castle just to name a few. I LOVE Rome. There are just HOT men everywhere! I shit you not when I say that even the garbage men are hot. I am however, disappointed with the gay bars. Someone must have pointed us to the crappy tourist gay bars and saved the good ones for the locals. We went to some tired ass place called the Hangar which is owned by an American. That should have been our first clue. Anyway, it was one of those pseudo leather, very cruisy (sp), bad music bars. One drink and we were out of that place. The next bar we stopped at was Max's. That one was a little better but unfortunately the Hangar had set the tone and we called it an early night.

Sunday was fabulous. We made it to Vatican city just in time to see Papa! Yes, I got to see the Pope! I'm not Catholic or anything but you don't get to see the ruler of a country in person every day! He gave his Sunday speech and he did sound quite ill. After Papa's speech we ventured into St. Peter's cathedral. Can I tell you that this place is the bitch queen of all churchs! I LOVE St. Peter's! It's huge and opulant like a big drag queen! Let's not mention all the hot men and priests that were roaming around that place. I got more cruise action in St. Peter's than I did at the bars the night before! No lie. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the Sistine chapel or the museums because they were closed. Since I am an optimist this only means that I will have to come back to Rome another time to see the everything else!

Ciao!