From Jo and Brian- the first full day in Rome

Our first full day in Rome! Well, I guess I should start with last night. After a safe trip here, and little more than an hour sleep for any of us (on the plane) no one was much interested in sleeping when we got here. Our apartment is great - not very fancy, but very Italian and it is clean. We also have a lovely courtyard - again not fancy but nice to have the outside space. After we got here, we walked over to St. Peter's Square. It was fairly busy, and we didn't go into the church, but sort of oriented ourselves to where we were. Laurie and Mike decided to go on a bus tour of some sites, and we went back to the apartment. After getting some groceries etc at the local store, just a minute's walk away, we sat outside and eat delicious bread, cheese, marinated seafood, olives, roast pork, etc., in our courtyard. It's kind of a blur right now - we were all so very tired. We all hit our beds at 9pm, and I will be none of us saw 9:30 on the clock.

Today, Brian and I went out early and scouted out a great place for our morning cappucino. I tell you it is the best in the world. Then we all went over to the magnificent St. Peter's. It is absolutely over-whelming. Brian and I left L&M and R&J to climb to the top, and we went our separate ways. Brian and Jo figured we walked about 10 or more km., to Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Campo dei Fiori, Piazza Venezia, Gregorian University, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps. We would have gone further but 1) some of the churches we wanted to see were closed for siesta, and 2) It's Independance Day (or something like that) here, and every single Roman and tourist were out and about. It was crazy. Our feet were getting tired, so we took the metro back. It's about 3pm, and we're ready for a nap. We're going out for supper tonight and tomorrow, who knows.