La Dolce Vita, Capisci? (Italy Part I)

Hello faithful (though perhaps at this point, nonexistent) readers!  It has been quite a month!  This is mostly because of my recent trip to Italy and the ensuing craziness that a certain Icelandic volcano caused.  The rest I don't remember much of but if you are still intrigued, please, read on....

Friday morning I left for Rome where I was to be staying with some family (no, friends, sadly the way we are related does not make me Italian.  Sigh...).  Since the French were once again on strike at just about the most inconvenient moment possible (little did we know, there were moments even more inconvenient looming...), it was pretty hectic as at 8:28 a worker at the train station told me my train was cancelled and I should jump on the 8:30.  After I got to Paris I stayed in the airport for a ridiculously annoying amount of time drinking coffee and doing homework for the paper on Vatican II I was writing but by that night I was in Rome eating pasta and calamari drenched in butter sauce.  A good start.