roman tales

I really apologise for the lack of posts....I tried a few days ago, but got cut off and lost what I had written. Such is life, I suppose.
I'm in Rome right now and it's raining. Ok, sort of spitting raining, but it's still good enough for me, and it has cooled things down some, which is nice for now. I feel like I'v been running since I got here, so I came back to the hotel (and no, I didn't spell that wrong - I'm staying in a hotel, not a hostel, but the hotel here has a couple of dorm rooms, so same deal) and crashed for an hour and a half. I really haven't been spending a lot of time checking out the nightlife of any of these places, but I just find it hard to get motivated sometimes.....who really wants to go to a club or bar or something and try to avoid the inane and usually annoying conversations (read: loud 'ciao! smile for me!'s) that are attempted in the street during the day? Beau, where are you when I need you?
Rome is a cool place. Every time you turn a corner, you find old city walls, or another set of ruins, or some baroque palace, or something of the sort, perfectly integrated into everyday life. It's kind of weird, but it works somehow. I spent today exploring the Vatican, standing in the seemingly long, but very fast moving line to get into St. Peter's Basilica first thing (bypassing the uber long and not moving line to get into the Vatican museum) and spent quite a while wandering around that place. Even though I had been there before, I think I had forgotten just how excessive and over the top that place is. REally, seriously. I mean, St. Peter's is everything the Protestants hate (and in fact, was one of their reasons for creating protestantism, if I remember my art history courses correctly).....I think the last time I was there, I missed out on a lot of it, not only because I was 15, and who knows anything at 15, but also because the pope had been in attendance, and that meant restricted access. Today I got to wander around freely...it was wild. After the basilica had worn me out, I went and stood in the much shortened line for the museum for 10 mins, and went inside. It's a cool place, with some interesting works in the picture gallery, but you can really tell everyone is there for the Sistine Chapel (or as I heard at least 2 groups of Americans call it, the Sixteenth Chapel). The Chapel itseld just recently had a facelift, so the colours are really intense....I think they did a decent job for the most part.....there were so many people in that room, it was hard to breathe though...cool to see, despite it all.
Hmm....yesterday was just wandering around the city, and I was a bit dismayed to find out that the Fontana di Quattro Fiumi (a rad fountain by Bernini) is under construction, but what can you do? Anyway....the Tuscan villa was awesome, and I ended up staying there an extra day. The bike ride to San Gimignano nearly killed me, as it is uphill (and I mean HILL) for over 2 hours on the way there, and neither derailer on teh bike worked well, so I only really had one gear that sort of worked......unfortunate. but the town is cool, and the ride home rocked. the days before that were spent in a cooking class, a chianti wine tour, and lying in a hammock, reading the hobbit. awesome. Anyway, I have to go check on my pasta on the hot plate, but I promise I'll try to write more frequently, now that internet doesn't cost 10 euro an hour...ciao