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Sistine chapel ceiling
With the Last JudgmentI decided that I like Rome. It reminds of home (Jakarta); the litters on the street, the gritty smog from the cars, wild scooter drivers, and plenty of food and sunshine. At the end of a day of walking, we'll stagger back to our hostel, a little bit darker than when we left in the morning, from the sun as well as from the dirt that sticks to our sweaty, stinky bodies. I hope there's no disease that's caused by walking too much, eh? Because walk, walk and walk we do to save money on bus tickets so we can buy ourselves a nice meal with wine at night.
Rome has plenty to see and 4 days is definitely not enough. I'm not going to go on listing what we did because I assume everybody knows what most tourists do in Rome, and the pictures will tell all that too.
The churches here, unlike the ones in Florence, are free. And there are many of them. A nice place to take a break from walking, and they're always nicely decorated too, even the wee ones. My only suggestion is to visit St.Peter at the end of your trip, because
The line in front of the Vatican Museum
Don't bother coming super early (like we did). When we came out, there was no line at all. Aargh! once you see it, you'll lose the inclination to check out other, smaller churches. It's so grand that you think, "Ah, what for. I've seen the best." It's a pity because there might be a little, tucked away church somewhere out there that you like better for your own personal reason. Then again, I heard Rome has 900 or so churches so it might take awhile to check them all out.
We had a little encounter with the gypsies yesterday. They were trying to do one of those cliche scams we've heard so much before. One would distract us with a piece of newspaper, while the smaller one tried to go for Chris' pocket. We always thought we were ready for them but it's a different thing when you're caught off guard. They seemed to sprung out from nowhere, suddenly surrounded us, the older lady flapping the piece of newspaper in front of our faces. The little girl got herself between Chris and I and I could see her little hand went for the pocket. She was so quick it didn't register to me what was happening. Chris stopped walking and turned around, that seemed to deter them because
Not a SUV, or a truck...
The most popular car in Europe is definitely this 2 seater Smart car. We've even seen a convertible and 4 wheel drive one... she quickly dropped her hand and walked away.
We didn't see many gypsies around, contrary to what we've been led to believe. The few that we saw, most were beggars with pity inducing babies/kids, or dogs sleeping next to them. I hope it's just purely coincidence that all the babies/kids and dogs were all sleeping ever so soundly when we saw them. The incredible thing is some of them were young, fresh and for goodness sake, dressed in better, cleaner clothes than what we wore. I kid you not. I saw a girl about 15, dressed smartly in a bright colored, collared shirt, jeans, and chic looking black backpack, and she was carrying a cup and begging! Incredible.
It got me curious. Who are these gypsies? Do the kids go to school? What do they do other than begging on the street? Has there been cases where they drug the kids/pets to make them look pitiful? Research is under way.
Anyway, tomorrow morning we're flying to Athens. We said goodbye to Colosseum earlier today, and tonight we're planning to do some more night shootings, exploring, and saying bye-bye to the polluted, grimy, dirty Rome that I've grown
Sistine chapel ceiling
Photos not allowed inside the chapel, although people were taking pictures anyway (I know because flash was going off every 2 secs). I tried to be stealthy so a lot of the photos turn out blurry. to like very much.
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SB Mom
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Interesting accidents.
First you stumble "in" the "out" door and make it in to see David, then you just "happen upon" the Pope. I like the way you two travel!!!! Pictures are awesome and I can't wait for Greece! Take care and please don't stumble upon any more gypsies. Love, Mom