I got breakfast for everyone this morning, because everyone else was to tired or hung-over to get food. Emily and I walked around for a while, buying presents for people and hanging out. Came back for Abe and took the metro to San Clemente. We didn't go into the underground part, just hung out outside for a while. Then took the metro back to the Spanish Steps and had a tea break at Babington's tea room, which is something Emily had been wanting to do since last time we were here. It was good, although overpriced.

We watched a small communist protest. There was about 50 communists, who looked like a bunch of dirty hippies, holding signs and playing music. They were surrounded by at least 500 cops in full riot gear, standing around looking bored.

Abe and I had a great dinner at a small, family owned restaurant near Termini Station. The food was wonderful. We had a three course meal and a bottle of wine to celebrate a great trip!

We went to the Vatican Museum today. The metro was closed for some reason, so we had to take a cab instead. Last time we went, the line into the museum was horrendous, this time it was nonexistent. The galleries were incredible, unfortunately the Sistine Chapel was closed, because there was still "Cardinal Juice" everywhere. Too bad Abe the Art HIstory minor missed it.

Emily went shoe shopping near the Vatican, then did some more shopping near the Jewish Ghetto. We visited a Chocolateria near the Piazza Navona while waiting for the pizza restaurant to open. Emily got a no sugar added hot chocolate drink, which tasted phenomenal. The pizza restaurant was something I had been looking forward to for a while, because the book said that it was the best in the city. And boy was it good! Although the mushroom pizza near Piazza del Popolo was just as good if not better.

Abe went to an Irish Pub at 1:00 am to watch the Boston Red Sox game. He got waisted and met some chick who also liked his team. They hit it off right away, and made out a little bit. When they left, she wouldn't kiss him goodbye (probably because he was obnoxiously drunk). He stumbled back to the hotel at 4:30, woke us up with the story, fell asleep, and kept us awake with his snoring.

Woke up late and got ready slowly. Emily slept till noon, while Abe and I had a leisurely breakfast. We walked down near the Jewish Ghetto, which is now a trendy shopping district, and watched Emily shop. Ate lunch near the Piazza Navona and took a cab to the Forum, after walking through the Museum of Rome (which was boring).

We didn't make the mistake of going inside the Colosseum again (it was boring the first time). Instead we saw the Arch of Constantine and walked around the Roman Forum, which was awe inspiring! We strolled leisurely amongst the ruins and took in the scenery. I got some great pictures, but Emily decided to walk up the hill without telling Abe or I. We looked for her in a panic, on the wrong side of the hill, and finally spotted her bright pink shopping bag in the distance.

Ate dinner at the hotel and had "The Witch" for dessert.

Ate breakfast at the hotel. Excellent, as always. Went over to the Spanish Steps and hung out for a while, while dirty people tried to sell us cheap crap. Left there and ate at the Piazza del Popolo. I had mushroom pizza, Em and Abe had four cheese pizza. They were all good, but mine was so good that Abe and I had to order a second one to spilt. Emily got annoyed at me for reading the guide book all the time and took it away from me. I was sad.

Hung out at the Piazza del Popolo and visited the Santa Maria del Popolo, an amazing, multifaceted church which Abe had been bugging us for days to go see. Inside were works by Raphael, Pinturicchio, Bernini, Bramante, and many others. We left there and climbed back to the top of the lookout point Abe and I had visited our first day in Rome. The lookout point is right on the edge of Villa Borghese park. We walked around the park, rented a three seater bike shaped like a car. Wore ourselves out in about ten minutes riding the bike. Walked around the park for a while looking at the scenery and ancient ruins.

We tried to get into the Borghese Museum, but it was sold out. Instead we hung out in the secret garden behind the building. Emily and I skipped rocks across a fountain at Abe. I tried to climb an old wall, but I almost killed myself while Emily through rocks at me and Abe laughed.

Ate dinner at a restaurant recommended by the concierge. Delizioso!

We started the day at the Capuchin Crypt, an amazing space decorated with the bones of 4000 dead monks. The morbid decorations covered the floor, walls, and ceiling. A mass of pelvises in one room, skulls in the next. Bones lining the walls and full skeletons lying in small recesses between the bones. Absolutely incredible.

After that we took a cab to St. Peter's Square. It wasn't as crowded as I expected it to be. Today is the second day of voting to elect the new pope. Our plan was to sit around the square all day, just taking in the sights and watching the crowds. The cardinals let off black smoke, for the first voting session, around noon. The next voting session wasn't until 4:00, but they weren't going to let off smoke until 7:00 (or so we thought). So we hung out a little longer, then went to see some local sights. The first was a church where people in purgatory supposedly left their marks. Kinda lame. Then we went to the Castle of St. Angelo, which Abe and I though was great, but Emily thought was boring.

On the way back to the Vatican, we grabbed a quick meal, and returned to St. Peter's around 6:00 (so we could get a good seat while waiting for the 7:00 smoke). Two minutes after we sat down, the chimney started smoking. At first it looked black, but the longer we looked, the lighter it looked. Soon the whole crowd had come to the same conclusion. White smoke!! In no time, the square was packed. As we waited for the emergence of the new pope, it just got more and more crowded. Pope Benedict XVI was announced about 45 minutes after the smoke. He came out looking bewildered, preformed some awkward hand motions and blessed the crowd. It was terribly exciting! Trying to get out of the square, however, was a different story. The entire area in and around St. Peters was completely packed. You couldn't move an inch. People were smashed together like a rock concert. Or worse. Abe hurt his knee trying to jump over a small fence. The crowd helped everyone else, but when Abe tried to get over the fence, they cleared a path for him to fall.

We ate dinner at a beer and sausage house. I was the only one who had a good meal.

Abe, Emily and I arrived in Rome (Italy not Georgia) at around 9:30 am, got to the hotel and had some of the best pastries and cappuccino ever. The trip there was an ordeal in itself. Well, not so much the ride, but the layover. We stopped in New York and had one hour to make our connecting flight. It was obvious that we would starve on the way to Rome, if we didn't get some food in the airport. Abe decided to grab a beer at the airport bar, which almost made us miss our flight. Somehow he was under the impression that the plane wouldn't leave without him. Emily was pissed when people started to board the plane, but he wouldn't come. He eventually got on the plane, but it was not a pleasant start to the trip.

We were all pretty exhausted from the flight, but Abe and I wanted to go walk around and Emily wanted to take a nap. So, Abe and I walked over to the Spanish Steps and sat around for a while.

I love Rome. When Emily, Shannon and I went to Europe last year, this was my favorite city. We decided to come back here just on a whim after the pope died, so we could see the election of the new pope. It took a great deal of convincing to get Abe to quit his job and come, but we managed to pull it off (it helped that he was sick of working there and had already been thinking about leaving).

We left the Spanish and headed up to the Piazza del Popolo, one of my favorite squares in the city. From there we spotted an observation point heigh above the square and the city. In our airplane weary delirium, we decided to climb to the top. I'm glad we did though, the view was amazing, but it wore us out.

Emily woke up from her nap when we got back to the hotel, and we all walked to the Pantheon. We ate a pretty terrible lunch on the way (the only bad meal of the trip). Last time I was here, I didn't spend enough time at the Pantheon, so I was glad to go back. We sat at a cafe across from the ancient church and ate dessert.

Next stop was the Piazza Navona. Always a fun place to hang out and grab a great meal. I bought a painting by a local artist as a souvenir. We stopped at the Trevi Fountain on the way back to the hotel. It is one of the most beautiful sights in the city. I could watch it all day. You think they would build me one in my backyard?

Stupid people... Don't you just love them?

Emily and I have been dealing with these people all week. Well her more than me. One guy came in for an interview for a hard money loan and talked her and my mom's heads off for an hour and a half. He was dirty, smelly and argumentative. He hard-balled them for an hour about their prices. When he left, they ran his credit and confirmed their suspicions - his credit sucked. Em has also been dealing with a stupid borrower all week. He called Monday, wanted to close on Wednesday, and complained about the price (no price break for that short of notice). Then, four hours before he was suppose to close, he wanted to raise the loan amount by $34,000 to convert the single family house to a four-plex. However, he didn't tell the appraiser, so the house was appraised on $30,000 worth of repairs, not $64,000. So, Emily has been going back and forth with him for the last few days trying to get the deal to close. Wednesday, after the supposed closing time, the buyer found out that there was a code enforcement lean against the house because the owner had been fixing the house himself without pulling permits. Emily is going crazy trying to get it all figured out.

Em and I are really excited for the trip. It's just about the only thing we can think about. A couple days ago, I went on Bestbuy.com to find a larger memory stick for my camera. They had the one I wanted on sale for $76, so I called the store to find out if they had it in stock and if the internet price was the same as the in-store price. They said that they had a bunch in stock, but it would be cheaper to buy it over the internet and pick it up in the store. So that's what I did. About 30 minutes after ordering, I got an e-mail saying that my item was pulled from the shelf and available for pickup at the front of the store. When I got there, it was not pulled from the shelf and the manager informed me that the memory stick was out of stock. Naturally, I was pissed. They searched all over the store and in the warehouse and eventually found one. I took it and left. When I got home, I found out that the memory stick didn't work with my camera. Crap. I went back, returned it, and asked for one that would work. They took literally half an hour to tell me that the one I needed was out of stock. Abe told me a similar story of poor customer service at Best Buy and that he had been boycotting the store ever since. So, we went to Circuit City, found the memory stick and were out of there in under five minutes. Lesson learned.

On a more upbeat note, IPhoto rocks. I would have never used it, but my dad just got a new Mac (it took a while to convince him, but Em and I finally did) and tried out the program. As a new Mac user, he needed my help figuring out the program. I played with it for a while on my computer and saw the power of IPhoto for myself. I can't wait to get prints and photo books!

I finally got to upload some photos from when we baby-sat Nugget. We've been soooo busy lately. I've been taking care of most of the Big Picture DVD stuff, while Emily has been handling the hard money loans. Abe has finally quit his dead end Firestone job. Now he's going to go back to school for his MBA and join us in some real estate deals.

I have some exciting news!! Abe, Emily and I are going to Rome in two weeks! Yes, that's right, we're crazy. I don't care what you say. It's going to be amazing!