Rome day 3- april 1st

So all our money got stolen and brendon got mugged.
April fools. Lame right? Never was to good at the april fools things, I always tended to make them to outlandish and believable, like hey Britney, elementary school girlfriend, my dad got a job in B.C and we're moving, sorry but we're going to have to break up. Needless to say she didn't find it funny.

Moving on today was a semi relaxed sort of day. We decided that we needed to go to the pantheon as well as the spanish steps and then back to the Colosseum for our tour. We made our way to the pantheon and were quite worried about the amount of time it would take to get there as our map seemed to show that everything was ridiculously far apart. Nonetheless our map was wrong and we got there as quick as can be. Honestly, it was amazing, the flocks of tourists surrounding it took away from it but it was so huge and magnificent I could help but be awestruck. The scaffolding surrounding it was impressive as well, scaffolding surrounding ancient structures seems to be a trend here in Rome and I must say it gets a little annoying when you can only take a picture of half the intended subject. Anyways from here we left and went to the Piazza del Popo, which was very cool and made even ore impressive by the amazing blue sky dabbed with clouds, in the background. We wandered from here with the intention of going to the spanish steps and accidentally happened upon them, not srpising considering we just followed the masses of english speaking camera laden tourists like ourselves. We emerged from a small alley to see the steps basked in light, a beautiful as can be were it not for the million tourists sprawled across them eating McDonalds (I guess the Americans just missed home)

We walked up the steps hoping to take some great pictures of the view from the top and as we were about halfway up we were stopped by a Spanish guy who looked to be about 20. Now you have to understand there are people, mainly men, attempting to scam as many tourists as they can, from bubble water guns and cheap plastic sunglasses to half dead roses. This was no different. He took my hand and wrapped some string around it, the kind you use to make bracelets at camp with, really cheap and colourful. He wrapped it around my thumb and despite my constant assertion that I had no money, I did but there was no way I was giving it to someone whose employ was wrapping string around dumb tourists wrists, He continued to make a bracelet spewing crap about luck and love. He finished and then, surprise! He asked for money, telling me that this was his job. I told him that there was no way I was paying for this and that I told him that at the beginning. He grudgingly took to off my wrist and went in search of a more gullible tourist. I went to find Brendon and found that he too had fallen under the charm of these talented men, but had given in and paid a Euro 1.50. We went to the spanish steps and took in the amazing view. I remarked to Brendon that I wished there were no cars in rome and that it should be like ancient times. The city is just so dirty.

We left and headed to the Colosseum even though my camera was out of batteries. We arrived I being the cheap stingy guy that I have been since the start of this trip suggested doing the tour some other time, preferably when we had working cameras. So instead we basked, read and slept in the sun. Then we headed back to the hostel to rest a bit, travelling and having no responsibilities gets really tiring, and watched a movie at the hostel before going out for dinner. Brendon really wanted Caio e pepe, pasta with roman cheese and pepper. He had that and I had a 6 euro pizza which was huge and had egg, ham, shrimp, mushrooms and tomatoes. Luckily I hadn't eaten anything today so I was able to afford it.

We finished our meals, which were very good, probably due to Italy being the birthplace of both pasta and pizza., headed back to the hostel and went to bed.

Adios
Joel