When in Rome...

Onwards from Siena, Mike and I caught a train to Naples where we met back up with Kevin and Erik, who had stayed in Croatia several days longer. We were all expecting Naples to be a romantic, coastal city, but we were dissapointed - the south of Italy is much more impoverished than the south and it shows in its biggest city. Naples was littered with trash and filled with corroding buildings of bland architecture. Perhaps it was so dissapointing since we've been so spoiled the last month, visiting the most beautiful cities in Europe, but regardless we were not impressed with Naples. Upon advise from a local, we took a bus far out of the city to a little park that provided a view of the entire city. It was beautiful - but in a more industrial way than what we're used to.
Our last day in Naples, we worked a connection made the previous day and got a pass to the front stage for a filming of MTV Italy's Total Request Live show. There we were, Mike, Kevin, Erik and I, in a sea of screaming 14 year-old girls...an interesting experience, to say the least. We did, however, get to see a live performance by a British artist, Sky, which was quite impressive. After that, it was off to Rome.
Coming to Rome from Naples was a drastic change. Rome is a pristine, clean city. There is ancient history around every corner and the architecture dwarfs the individual, everything is on such a grand scale. Today we toured the Colloseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Saint Peter's Basilica (which we saw yesterday as well), saw Trevi Fountain and more...it was somewhat overwhelming taking it all in in one day. Whereas yesterday was filled with more aimless roaming, today was focused on all the sights, which actually was a nice way of seeing a city in such a short amount of time - soaking in the general atmosphere on day one, and filling in the sights on day two. Fortunately, we have all day tomorrow as well. Mike and I are getting up early to see the Vatican museums and Sistine Chapel, and then will meet Erik and Kevin for the Catacombs.
Rome is bustling this weekend, it being the Easter holiday. Today, while at Saint Peter's, we completely lucked out and got to see the Saturday mass - we were a mere 100 yards from the big Papa himself!! We saw the first hour of the service and were blown away by the chants and hymns - the basilica is incredible in itself, as we experienced yesterday, but seeing it packed with people and filled with the beautiful voices of the choir was amazing...simply amazing.
Well...I'm going to try and download a couple pictures now...I am sorry, I forgot to bring the cd with photos from Budapest, Greece and Prague, so these will only cover from Dubrovnik on.
10-4 out.