Pilgrimage: it has started... (Seattle to Rome)

I am in Rome, came in at 8:30 am.... i joked with a friend of mine, that i would wait till last minute to find how i get from airport to city and from there to a guest house or hotel... i did indeed wait till twenty minutes before landing. i felt like cramming for an exam... trying to get oriented while running... but it was all really easy... especially since i am not super budget wise my first night here. i've had two hours sleep in 36 plus hours.
i stayed my last two nights at my friend Quiche and Sarahs. Quiche was brave and woke up early to get my to airport by 6;30..... american airport security seems to have gotten even more tight and long winded...or perhaps it's just seattle?
so flight was from seattle via philidelphia to rome on us air. the first flight i was a bit irritated cuz i think the nerves finally hit.I thought i was cranky on the first flight, second flight seats are designed for peeps 5.8 or shorter...and i had dude, in front of me leaning way far back...he actually on his own inclination got air-staffians to find me a better seat, one with no neigbhor so i could spread sideways and the man could lean way back guilt free...I did not really sleep on flight cuz got that second wind...damn...
once at rome airport train station, I had to bother some people to figure out were to buy rail ticket... but found train to rome easily enough and it terminated in the main train station near which are lots of little hotels and i got me a room, its a box and a splurge for someone on my budget. it has it's own shower no less and a tv...did i mention wifi in my room...? i am so bouge!!
rome is sunny and crisp it does have the unfortunate stench of sewage and pee, lucky for those arent big triggers but i remember a friend from way back who was completely repulsed by those kind of smells from her view much of europe. i think it's just warm climate large ancient cities..as cause....
speaking of, it did not even hit me till i got here that rome is not just the moderrn city but is layers of layers of history...sure i am pointing out obvious but being here and seeing and feeling it, makes it very real.
so i have a sunny day and i hope to do just a little exploring.

i took a one plus hour nap then got myself going again. i decided i was too looped from sleep deprivation to force myself into very logistical sightseeing... i opted instead for the cop-out tour. they have these now everywhere, double decker open roofed tour buses. it was just warm enough i could sit on top. it is roughly a two our tour. since a lot of rome is cobbled at times you get quite jostled. it's a bit of a splurge for ten euro but damn it if i was going to drool and do nothing with half a day of sun still left. so it snaked thru central rome giving me a feel for the lay out of the city and where things were in relation to each other. map helped, and i got a head set to plug in and dial a language to get a gist of what i was seeing. it started at the train station one block from where i stay. so of course we went past the Colosseum, piazzza venezia, pantheon, the vatican, the castle of angelo, the spanish piazza, etc, got to see the famous Tiber river as well. took lots of photos of course...
i am not eating things to make the foodies happy, i had some sort of eggplant fast food sandwhich with fries and coke, so half healthy...and for dinner i had 'chinese' italian...cuz it was close, cheap and my brain was melting.
last bit of sight seeing was at National Roman Museum which had a lot of pre-roman stuff and sagofages and part of it was an old roman bath. i really got into the details and photoed any thing i found interesting absurd and charming...