Rome was lovely. Rainy and lovely. I just got home and have to do a few things tonight before school tomorrow so here's a peak into my time in Rome.

We stayed in a hostel near the train station. It wasn't very fancy--even given the name: Hotel Beautiful.  But the location was good and we spent the better part of two and a half days wandering around Rome not in our hostel so it's okay not to stay in the nicest place.

We ate a lot of food. A lot. Pizza, pasta, panini, galato, cookies, mozzarella, coffee and red wine.  Oh and I am sure I've left something off this list but this gives you a pretty good idea of the range of things I've consumed over the last three days.<!--more-->

We also saw, visited and wandered through a dozen different sites and what seemed like a hundred different streets. We went to the Vatican, to see the Sistine Chapel, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Fountain of Trevi and we explored all sorts of piazzas.

We also went to a live show featuring<a href="http://www.theswellseason.com/"> The Swell Season</a>. They're a great band.  If you don't know them, you should.  The two lead singers are in the movie<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_%28film%29"> Once</a> (a really wonderful film) that won an Oscar for best musical a couple of years ago. And  <a href="http://www.joshritter.com/news.php">Josh Ritter</a> opened the show.

The trip also made me think about this: I've got some reading and some learning to do. I know very little about art history and classical architecture. There is pretty decent amount of Greek and Roman mythology I need to brush up on (as well as some Bible stories).  And I think there is a long list of movies set in Rome that I probably should watch.

Funny how a vacation can create that much more work!