Quick update from Rome

Well, we're back in Rome for a quick stop before we drive off to Bologna early tomorrow morning. Roads in most of Italy are often very crowded during the days and with August being a major holiday time, almost everyone is on the roads. So, we've been driving during the wee hours of the morning and it's been pretty good. We left last night from Amantea around 11pm and strolled into Rome at around 4:30am. With the exception of the odd slow driver who actually obeyed the 40km construction zone area, the drive was painless. This guy was clearly a foreigner, cause we've been passed while doing 140km/hr and if looked as if we were standing still! Clearly, most locals don't drive slowly. When we got to Rome, we had a quick 5hr nap and then got up to tour around the city a bit more. Due the fact that the official holidays in Italy started yesterday, many, many shops are closed. However, the heart of the downtown area was still open, so we strolled around and looked at a few more sites before being kicked out of one of the churches due to the fact we didn't have enough on...apparently we needed long pants. But that's just craziness, cause there's no WAY you're going to get me to wear pants in over 30deg C! So we made a quick exit of that church and toured the outdoor sites...and found an excellent Gelateria for some awesome ice cream. If you make it to Rome...it's south of the heart of the city, and it's called "Ping Pong Gelateria." Almost everyone eats ice cream here...and we're still trying to figure out why the majority of the population aren't fat as hippos. Well, that's about it for now. Since we have to head back and get some quick dinner, we'll sign off for now. We'll have an update and maybe a few more pics when we stop at our hotel in Istanbul.