Old stomping grounds

There is an old Italian proverb that goes something like "he who goes to Rome and doesnt see the Pantheon comes and goes a fool". Somebody please call Berkeley and tell them that a fool I am not. Paula and I recently flew in to Rome from Bucharest, where we were greeted by goregeous blue Italian skies, punctuated solely by soft cumuli inviting us into a world where Renaissance magnificences is passed, casually, by Romans on their morning walk to work.
We found our hostel, as couchsurfing had failed us, and took off. We RAN from place to place, each destination adding momentum to our enthusiasum and egging us on to the next sight. When we found ourselves in the Sistine Chapel, our legs began to fail us. With throbbing feet we sat and reveled at Michelangelos ingenuity. We quit the place and found pizza and wine. Oops. We got a little...come se dice, drunk. So we stumbled back to the hostel, after a gelato or two and partied even harder. Now its time to go see Florence. Peace.

Bulgaria/Romania

OK OK where to start? Let's see, we last updated heading to Athens...which was, to say the least, nice (Yea, to say the least). Athens, we couchsurfed with this guy, Nico, who had a one bedroom apartment a short metro ride from the Acropolis. Paula and I stayed with him, and 3 hippies, who, as we, were enjoying Nico's hospitality. We spent little time in the apartment but what we did, was crowded. Paula and I were given Nico's waterbed, while the four of them slept out in the living room, where it got a bit noisy and, to say the least, stinky (yea, to say the least). Night one passed with little to report but night number two, Paula and I were out in Athens having a blast with Barb's unmet collegue, Theressia, and didn't make our way back until midnight. Come the dozen strikings of the bell, we were ready to dream the dreams of sailors. Nico wanted to talk. The three of us camped out on his bed until 2, whereupon we fell asleep and woke in the morning for our train only to find that we had passed the night with Nico, who was adorned in naught but his undergarments.
Ok, so we jump on a train to Sofia, Bulgaria. It was, to the the most, OK (yea to say the most). The couchsurfers we met made the experience better, and it was our first encounter with snow, which the sky provided in plethora.
Sofia, peace out, hello Brasov, Romania, where we currently sit. We've just spent the day gaurding our necks in Transilvania and strolling the grounds of Chateu Dracul. (Count Dracula's castle). Seriously? Yea, seriously. We saw Dracula's castle.
Don't worry, we're staying warm, it's currently 4 degrees. So, thanks dad for the jacket (which has got Jay's name on it you thief) and thanks Donna for keeping my Paula warm (my arms can only do so much).
Hope the McSig family has a great time at Omnium and don't forget about us ok? Love to everyone back home.
Pat and Paula