Last day in Venice, Hello Rome!

Lots has happened since the last time i wrote. Venice was amazing. On our first night we ended up eating at a restaurant outside right on the canal. We all had seafood spaghetti which has prawns in it, which are like a big huge shrimp with eyes, it was the best pasta I have had. After eating and watching all the boats go by, we decided to go to the Piazza Santa Margheritta, which is the plazza campo right next to where our hostel is. It is full of bars and cafes, and mainly younger college aged kids. We bought wine and becks pounders and sat out on the cobble stone in the court yard drinking at night and watching all the local kids. Very sweet.

The last day in Venice, we woke up and decided to go straight to the Island of Lido right off the coast of Venice for the beach! The beach was great, very european, and the water was warm. It was really relaxed there, and it seemed to be mainly local people. Everyone was nice. Its pretty cool I got to swim in the beachs of Venice.
Then when we got back, we went to San Marco Square, and toured San Marco Basilica, which has the largest gold mosaics. It was amazing, and I snuck pictures, and there was a wedding going on in a side altar. After that, we hopped back on the water bus (we were using the water busses that run along the canal all day) and headed to Rialto, which is a big touristy area, and maybe an area where some presents were purchased for some certain family members. (time will tell) It was great, we ate along the grand canal,and then went roaming around the tiny streets and all the shops. At night, there was a traditional italian wedding going on at our hostel, because its really awesome lookingin the back gardens. I watched outside from opened shutters with some breeze flowin in, and music being played down below. Awesome.
We ended up just sitting our by an opera house near our hostel and drinking some beers.

Then we hopped on our day train the next day to Rome! It was a fast train, and we slept most of the time. We got here in rome, 5 min walk to our hostel, The yellow hostel, its great, all kinds of young college and graduate kids. We ate, and then roamed the streets for a lil, and finished by drinking some beers and reading angels and demons in the cool bar downstairs.
TODAY, we went to see Vatican City! Toured the Vatican Museuma, seeing the famous hall of tapestries, greek sculptures, the map room, you name it, it was outstanding. Then we moved on into The Sistine Chapel. Unbelievable. after all my catholic education I finally made it haha. Our tour guide was great (looked and sounded like the woman from medium mom), and she told us all these great facts about Michaelangelo. Incredible.

Then we went into St. Peter's Basilica, larger than life. About 50 or more pictures later, we headed out to St. Peter's square and took about another 50 pictures. Then we got some food at a little pizza place, saw the Castle of St. Angelo, crossed over the Ponte St. Angelo, which is the bridge with all the statues, then made our way to the Pantheon. We turned a small corner and the Pantheon just came into sight. It was awesome to see a structure that old. Inside it was unbelievable, and Raphael was buried there, got a picture of his tomb. We then hit up the B.O. bus back to our hostel, after i bought some more goodies. We are going to shower up and head out for dinner. Tomorrow, the Colloseum and other ancient ruins, and tomorrow night, our hostel hosts a night tour of rome, aka bar tour! We will get to see the spanish steps and the Trevi Fountain so I am looking forward to that. Until next time, hope everyone at home is doing well!

-Tim