Roma! What an entrance!

Today we packed up and took our flight to Rome. As soon as I got on the plane I conked out until we landed. I was supposed to learn italian, oops. Refreshed, we embarked on the Roman public transportation triathalon: train, metro, and tram to get to Andy's friend Massimo's house. Amazingly we actually found the place and Massimo's daughter Julia let us in and showed us the ropes. Massimo's family is awesome, more on that later.

Our friend Daniel, well-known for his juggling, wild hair, and international scavenger hunts, had set up 3 clues in Rome for us 11 days earlier. We decided to explore Rome and find the first clue. It was at the Spanish steps, 18th century staircase, really cool, really nice, lots of people. We made our way towards the steps with only a few wrong turns (and very enjoyable wrong turns) and found the lamp post that supposedly held the clue. There were 3 items: a broken piece of glass, a sticker from florida, and a magnet. We brainstormed possible meanings (I thought Florida was Florence at first and prepared to travel across the country to find the next clue, Andy suggested that the magnet meant go North, and the piece of glass we unanimously agreed was trash. Eventually Andy developed the theory that the magnet was holding something else which had since fallen. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

Since our entrance to Rome, creepy middle-ages feudal castles have been replaced with much older classical Roman architecture. It is amazing how much of this city has survived the milennia intact. The Piazza de Popolo was our first stop, complete with an Egyptian obelisk from 10 B.C. That's right: 10 B.C. That was before I was born. It is still here now.

After returning we met Massimo, once again, the family is amazing. After giving us dinner he took us out for a gelato and upon returning, we saw fireworks (as yet unexplained) so he stopped the car in the middle of the street for a few minutes to watch. Then he brought us closer and dropped us off so that we could explore further. The firework show was amazing, huge bursts of colors between the Tiber river and the Castel Sant'Angelo, a breathtaking fortress first built about A.D. 135 lit at night. We then walked to the same square that has been a central part of Rome for the past 2000 years. This is going to be an excellent adventure.