Backpacking

So today was pretty much amazing.
Kristin and I got up at the crack of dawn aka 8:00am for breakfast and then left for "La Piazza Reppublico", where we were meeting up with a tour group to see the Vatican. We saw the Pope and toured the Vatican city, including The Sistine Chapel and St.Peter's Basilica. Our tour guide's name was Tad ( he introduced himself as either Rad Tad or Tadpole...goodtimes), and he was pretty entertaining and informative. We learned a great deal about Renaissance and Baroque periode art (Kendall and Ash you would have died!) and then we walked through the various corridors and chapels that make up the Vatican city.
There are not even words to describe what we saw today. I wouldn't even know where to begin to explain to the beauty of the art we saw. The Sistine chapel, the Basilica and well... the entire city, was breathtaking. Kristin and I barely spoke the entire time we were there, we were so enraptured with what we were seeing.

Before we even got inside however, We went at 11 am this morning to St.Peter's square, where we we blessed by the Pope along with thousands of other people, and then went and stood in line for the next 2 hours in the pouring rain (yes...it rained), before entering the city. We finished at around 5:00pm and headed back to our hostel by way of the city Metro, Italy's (much cleaner) version of the Sky Train.
When we got back both Kristin and I layed out our clothes to dry a bit and crashed for a much needed power nap ( goodtimes!). We stopped to grab a bite to eat for dinner at a little pizzeria on the corner, and now we're going to see about maybe doing some exploring with some fellow backpackers. Hope all is well and we will talk to you soon!
Ciao!
Love and hugs,
Kare and Kristin.

Ciao!
So we have nearly reached the end of our first day in Italy, and although we have done one update today already, we thought we might as well let you know how the day finished off.
After finishing our last entry, we decided to go and do a bit of exploring of the city. Within about ten minutes of leaving the hostel we found ourselves face to face with an incredible old brick church and Basilica. Across the street from this was a gorgeous fountain, and some of the most beautiful architechture we had ever seen! Kristin and I took a few pictures of what we thought were the Spanish steps (they werent but they were still beautiful) and then chased some pidgeons around the piazza before sitting down for lunch. After lunch, we decided to venture back to the hostel for a power nap so we could be well rested to continue exploring this evening. Today was a stat holiday in Italy as it is their labour day so there are a number of things including a major concert happening around the city tonight.
Roma is amazing, the weather is warm and the buildings are beautiful. We found ourselves a little caught off guard however by the extent our the language barrier. Considering the amount of tourism attracted to Rome, we had assumed that functioning in English would not be an issue...wrong. A weak attempt at ordering a drink in a cafe in Italian taught us that Italian was not quite as close to Spanish or French as we might have hoped. Not to worry though, we were able to struggle through using our phrase book and a number of stupdi looking hand gestures.
We have met a number of people in our hostel, including our roommates, who are from southern Spain, as well as people from Australia, USA, etc...
Finally, after enjoying or first slices of truely Italian pizza (amazing) we are just about ready to call it a night, as the jet lag is beginning to kill us.
Write again soon!
Love and hugs,
Kristin and Kerry.

Buongiorno!!
We made it to Roma! Was a long day/night of travelling, but thanks to Mr. Paterson, we were able to sleep quite comfortably in business class! He's pretty much our favorite person right now!
After landing at the Leonardo Da Vinci airport around 11:30 Rome time, and much confusion, (darn Italian signs), we boarded the train which to us to Termini station; virtually in the heart of the city. It was 20 degrees when we arrived, but quite humid and we worked up quite a sweat treking around the city with our 13.2kg and 12.4kg bags on our backs!
We definitely had a bit of an adventure trying to find our hostel... went about a dozen blocks in the wrong direction, almost were run over multiple times by the crazy mopeds, cars, buses, people, etc. But we met our first fellow backpacker (who was also lost) and we were able to finally make it to our hostel.
The hostel we are staying at is really funky and geared towards young, english-speaking travellers, so we have already met a lot of cool people (including a few from Vancouver!) and are looking forward to joining some of them on tours that the hostel runs.
Well, we are off to go explore the city (hopefully without Kerry side-swiping anymore people with her bag!) Hope all is well back home, and normally would say that we miss you all, but at this point, we'd be lying! Ciao for now!

Love and hugs,
Kerry and Kristin