This is the 2nd of Justin’s blogs that got lost in email. Enjoy.

So here I am writing multiple blogs on the train again, lol. I swear the train works out so perfectly. Unfortunately, the trains don’t have internet, but that works out well for my blogs giving me plenty of time to write and exclusively concentrate on them. Otherwise, I’d just be playing poker the whole time! The last couple days in Rome included a lot of sightseeing, and not a lot of playing poker, but that’s okay. After all those long and extremely intense sessions, maybe a couple day breather isn’t such a bad thing. The third day in Rome, Anita and I went to the infamous Vatican museum which is where the masterpiece of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo is. We also headed next door to wander through St. Peter’s Basilica (the very famous building that the Pope appears in the window of to give Sunday prayer).

The day before yesterday, we were busy throughout the day visiting sites fairly close to each other including the Colosseum stadium, Palatine Hill, the ruins and temples of the Roman Forum, and the historic Pantheon building. We tried some more flavors of gelato ice cream while sitting outside of the Pantheon as well….Love me some gelato!

Yesterday, we had to wake up at 6:30 a.m…which is 12:30 a.m. eastern time! AHHHHHh! It was for a good reason though, to see Pope Benedict. The Pope holds an “Audience” every Wednesday outside of St. Peter’s Basilica. The only way we could get tickets to attend was through a special tour. They picked us up in a shuttle bus outside of our hotel and arrived there two and a half hours early. I didn’t know the Audience didn’t start until 10:30 a.m. and wasn’t very happy to be waiting in the very early morning after three hours of sleep, with no food, and no restroom nearby for two and a half hours. I guess they just get you there early so you have good seats, and to their credit, I’m very happy we got there early to get near FRONT ROW SEATS. The pope came within 15 feet of us and I was very excited. With tens of thousands of people fit into the square in front of St. Peter’s Basilica cheering, screaming, and singing, it’s definitely a once in a lifetime experience. The pope maintains such an amazing aura and presence that is unparalleled by any other human in the world. He is not only the most holy living figure in the world in a lot of people’s eyes, but also probably the most well known and famous person worldwide. The late Pope John Paul is being fast tracked to sainthood, although usually the people who decide this like to wait a number of years to make sure no scandals or pretenses were made. By seeing Pope Benedict in person and hearing him say prayers in seven different languages, I was surprised to see him as a little more laid back than I had expected. I expected the Pope to be very reserved and strict. Now, the Pope is old of course, and is still very reserved, but you could see in his eyes that he was actually having TONS of fun and he was loving every minute of the ceremony. Groups of nuns had their chances to sing for twenty seconds or so for him and people from different countries would start chanting and yelling while waving their flags. While all this was happening, the Pope would wave his hand in a blessing matter with a nodding head in the direction of attention he was presently being given and would smile brightly. There’s some things in life you can’t explain, and for me, this was one of them. It wasn’t quite what I expected, but it was in a very positive and good-feeling way. For those curious, I was baptized Catholic while I was a baby. However, I’m somewhat of a bad Catholic and only attend Church for Christmas, Easter, and Ash Wednesday usually. Although, I have attended lots of very famous and historic cathedrals lately throughout my trip to Europe, and have lit many prayer candles for my family, friends, and myself.

I decided to skip WPT Niagra. A lot of people I know and friends are going. I also heard there’s going to be very juicy side action cash games. It’s just not going to fit quite right in my schedule though. Right now I’m on my way to Monte Carlo, Monaco to hang out on the way to Madrid, Spain to catch my non-stop flight home to Florida. I haven’t played poker the last three days or so because of waking up so early for various things including my early train this morning. I just haven’t been getting enough hours of great sleep the past few nights and therefore I feel like playing poker would not be a great decision. I’m switching trains in Genoa in about an hour, and maybe on my next train towards Monte Carlo, I’ll be able to put in a good nap that might let me play later tonight.