It's expensive to be alive. And even more expensive to live in Europe!

Well, I went to Italy this week and it was pretty great. Except that I got my camera stolen in Naples! AHHHHH!!!! It was awful and I don't even know when or how it happened or who took it. It happened sometime between the train and the bus in Naples, but I just noticed it was gone! It is so upsetting because we had taken tons of pictures of Rome and Meredith didn't even have a camera! And now I have to buy a new camera! Geez. So now I don't have any pictures to show from our trip :( But the trip was still fun. We went to Rome for the first 2 days and saw all the tourist stuff-the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and all the ruins. Then we went to Naples and wandered around there, but it was a pretty shady place. I wouldn't recommend it. There were a lot of scary people there and it's a super dirty city. But the city center is really nice. We also went to Pompeii and saw Mt. Vesuvius and all the ruins of Pompeii. That was really awesome. Then we went back to Rome for one more day and went to Vatican City and saw St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel and stuff. We didn't get to go in the Sistine Chapel though because they closed at noon! So that was disappointing. But we had a really good time despite the camera and the weather was nice and now this is just an excuse for me to have to come back to Rome!!! Here are a few pictures I got off the internet of the places I saw. This is the Pantheon and it was awesome and huge. Raphael (the artist) was buried there!This is the Roman Forum and the ruins in the middle of the city.This is the monument to Victor Emmanuel II and it's also the tomb of the unknown soldier. It was sooo huge, I couldn't believe it. We climbed all the way up the steps and could see the Colosseum and a lot of the city. This is what our hostel looked like in Rome. It was really nice and a lot of fun.This is the Trevi Fountain and it was absolutely beauitful and gigantic. The legend is that if you throw a coin into the fountain, you will ensure your return to Rome. I hope so!Inside the Colosseum. It was amazing to think that this was so old but still HUGE.The Roman Colosseum. It was pretty rad to actually see it in person. This is one of the arches of columns at the entrance to Vatican City. It's part of St. Peter's Basilica. It was amazingly beautiful.These are the famous Swiss guards outside St. Peter's Basilica. I'm not really sure how come they dress so funny. This is the view from on top of St. Peter's Basilica. We climbed all the way up millions of tiny winding stairs to the top of the dome. It was a really awesome view.This is St. Peter's Basilica. We climbed to the tip top of the tiny dome on top!Inside the Basilica. I can't even describe how beautiful it was. It blew my mind. St. Peter was buried there, as well as several popes and we also saw Michelangelo's "Pieta". Awesome. These are some of the ruins of Pompeii.

The ruins of Pompeii with Mt. Vesuvius in the background.