Laura and Floyd's Trip to Europe

Rome
We only got to spend 2 and a half days in Rome because we could not get a train out of Paris on the day we wanted. Rome was a crazy city where people drive like maniacs. When you cross the street you just have to go for it and hope the cars and motorcycles will stop. Its also funny because everyone rides a motorcycle to work, so you often see women in heels and skirts riding their motorcycles to work.

	Floyd in front of the Colloseum. It wasn't quite as big as we expected but it was impressive. It was kind of funny because when you went inside there were some dark corners with gates across, probably where prisinors or animals were kept, and they was a recording of scary ghost noises playing.
	These are the ruins of the Roman Forum and this was the view while walking down a busy street.
	Here we are walking down a narrow street and the Parthenon is seen rising up in front of us.
	I'm not sure exactly what this statue is but there were a few of them littered about Rome. I think they represent the winning of a battle. Its funny because Napolean built a similar looking thing in Paris, except out of the melted down cannons of his enemy.

Vatican City
	Walking towards Vatican City with St Peters in the background.
	This is the view of the square from the very top of St Peters. The dome was designed by Michaelanglo. You have to climb hundreds of stairs to get up here. And the stairs keep getting skinnier and skinnier the higher you go. At one point the spiral is so tight there is just a rope to hold onto. And at other points you to art lean in to avoid hitting your head on the dome.
	The map room in the Vatican Museum. It was really cool looking at the maps from a long time ago because they didn't know exactly what the New World looked like. So there would be a rough shape for Florida and then it would just vaguely go out. On one of the globes they had Russia a long ways away from the North America. We also saw the Sistene Chapel, and I was kind of skeptical because lots of the museums we had been to had artwork on the ceiling (like this room) so I didn't know what made the Sistine Chapel so cool. Well what makes it so cool is that it is very 3D looking. There is architecture painted on the ceiling that looks real. I spent about 5 minutes looking at it trying to decide if it was part of the building or if it was painted.
	(This is not my picture, you weren't allowed to take pictures in the Chapel.) But in this picture you can see the columns that the people are sitting on, but those columns aren't part of the building, they are just painted onto the ceiling. Really cool.
	A big hunk of watermelon for 1 euro. Yum yum.