Here safe and sound!

Well after 35+ hours in a row of being up, we are all here safe and sound. We are staying at a hotel that is situated close to the main train station which is really convenient when arriving by train... provided you actually know where you are going. I had a good idea of the direction that we were supposed to be heading in, though with two large suitcases and ma and pa kettle following in tow, things always seem to be farther than they appear.

When we disembarked from the train, we found ourselves in the middle of rush hour traffic, both pedestrian and vehicle- and I should say that "vehicle" includes buses, trams, cars and hella motor bikes or scooters - whatever you want to call them. We were all a bit tired, obviously, but I was determined to get us to the hotel in a way that caused no casualties. We took the first two turns correctly, and accidentally overshot our block by one street. Thankfully, after having lived in Europe I know that you have to look in the weirdest places for street signs, and the one we needed was mysteriously absent. Oh well - we forged on (in the wrong direction) and continued on our way. As we took the next turn, we heard helicopters over head, and noticed that police cars and motorcycles were blocking off traffic for some sort of motorcade. After a bunch of police vehicles zipped down the newly cleared streets followed by the typical black sedans. I joked and said "look, it's Silvio Berlusconi" knowing full well that we'd have no idea who was actually in the cars- or so we thought. There was one silver sedan in the midst of the funeral-esque motorcade- inside the sedan there was a strange yellow glow, and a grey haired man with a white cap on his... holy crap it's the Pope. Within 10 minutes of being in Rome, we saw the freaking pope. Check that off the bucket list. I tried to tell my mom that this means I'm set for life and never have to go to church again. She didn't buy it.