Taking single shot panorama

During my trip to Italy, I took a bunch of cool photos. As has happened before, I felt it did not quite the feeling of being there. So I have been looking at ways to may 360 degree pictures with a single shot. I found Panoramic Photography with Fisheye Lenses which tells you how to take a 180 fisheye picture and turn it into a cilidrical panorama. I have also tried doing the same using The Gimp and a metalic sphere, the bigest problem being taking a picture without the camera taking over the entire view - that and I need to polish it.

I'll post photo's once I figure it out.