So Italy has old stuff...

We first arrived in Rome, staying right near the Colisseum. We spent a couple days making the rounds of the standard historical ruins, and then tried to escape this unbelievable tourist trap as soon as possible.

It still is a really striking thing, the scale and grandeur of this ancient civilization - that had concrete and plumbing 1000 years or so before we re-discovered both. My favorite building was the Pantheon, a massive domed structure that really gave you and idea about the beauty of their structures.

My cousin Jessica is currently going to school in Rome, and any further reference to our distaste of American students excludes her - as she is neither a Valley Girl, pretentious, or unintelligent.

If we could only explain to you the mounting frustration that occurred during this trip - it felt like we were hanging out at some high school with the unbelievable massive number of American students (no seriously, you can't imagine how many). We lost count of the number of dinners that were interrupted by loud explanations of "totally like great skirt, like".

So.....off to some peace and quiet in Cinque Tera!