Colosseum, Ancient City, and America's Birthday

Rome is exactly what I expected. I love it. Great food. Good people. Big city. Lot's of old stuff. Went to the Colosseum, the forums, and the rest of the ancient city on Sunday. The line for the Colosseum was only about an hour. Once you're in there it's a spectacle. The thing burned down in 217 AD, and for most of the time between then and Napolean, it just deteriorated. Some of the material was reappropriated for various building projects. Took a ton of pictures. It was 95 and sunny all day. By the time I got down I was completely dead. I'm actually hoping for some rain at this point. It's been so hot everywhere I go. We need some rain. At night I met up with some friends and we went out to celebrate 4th of July. Needless to say, this morning has been pretty rough. Had to change hostels too so that made it harder. Had to spend most of the day in restaurants and book stores just to keep cool. Today was a nice lazy day compared to Sunday. Tomorrow I do the Vatican, and then Wednesday I go up to visit Uncle Mark! I'll try to get some pictures up on facebook soon.