Today was my second day in Rome and I went to the Vatican, St. Peter Basilica and the Vatican Museum, which took up pretty much the entire day. At the Museum I ran into two of the people who were staying in the same dorm room as me. And just a few minutes ago I ran into someone I had met on the overnight train from Barcelona to Nice. I guess the tourist world is a pretty small place. There are only a few places in each city where a tourist is likely to go, and with railpass travellers who have only 1 or 2 days in each city, there is a good chance that many of them will be there on the same day. Anyway, I'm starting to feel a little better about this trip even though it's not turning out the way I had expected. I am seeing quite a lot of Europe with relatively little trouble. Walking around instead of taking taxis or mass transit is saving me a lot of money and I get to see more of the city than I would otherwise. Thank god I bought these hiking boots before I left the UK. They were probably the single best purchase I have made in the last few years and they are serving me very well. Except for the blister I developed on the first day while walking through Paris, I have had no problems with my feet at all. In fact, I frequently think to myself how comfortable my footwear is in comparison to the brown shoes I was using to walk around the UK. The other things I purchased in the UK in preparation for this trip such as the blue shirt and the blue sweatpants have been pretty much useless. I dumped the sweatpants in Paris, literally, right into a garbage can and I am thinking about dumping the blue shirt since it is too large so unless I tuck it in I rarely wear it. The nike bag I bought has been useful in the sense that I have been using it every day, but in the same sense, it has not been useful because if I was going to use it every day I might as well have brought my regular shoulder bag which is more comfortable and handy. The whole reasoning behind the nike bag was that it was just a knapsack so I could fold it up and put it in my main backpack but I rarely do that since there is always a place to leave my main backpack, whether at the hostel or in the station locker. So today, I also sent out 2 postcards from the Vatican which has a more reliable postal system than Italy. One was to the Medicolegal center in Sheffield thanking them for the elective and the other was to D and A in Ireland. Actually I had written them both postcards from Spain but never sent them off. And I didn't think to bring them with me to the Vatican so instead I bought 2 new postcards and wrote new messages. I guess I will have to throw the old ones away since I pretty much said the same things over. It's too bad because I really liked the postcards I had bought from Cordoba. Tomorrow I am going to Florence to see the Uffizi. I have decided that I have to be more efficient with my travelling so I am going to spend only 1 or 2 days in each city from now on, taking as many night trains as possible. If I can see the Uffizi during the daytime, I will take a night train from Florence to Switzerland or maybe even Vienna or Budapest. Depending on how much of a supplement I have to pay it will probably be more expensive to stay on the train than in a hostel but I will be able to see more. I have pretty much seen all of the major cities that I really wanted to see, Paris, Rome, Madrid, so there is really no point in staying longer than 2 days in one place. Maybe Amsterdam will be the last place I go where I will stay longer.