Day 18, Rome, Italy

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Day 18: Monday, December 14th, 2009
Rome, Italy

We start off our day early by leaving the hotel at 7:15am to get to Vatican City. Regardless of the day, there is always a line (and an impossible one on Sunday's so we're lucky it's Monday). We are to hop on a public bus, get off at metro station and take two different metro lines to get there. However, the first city bus pulls up and a few people jump on, including Kent & Ashton. There is no room for the rest of us so we try to remember what they were last wearing as the bus pulls away. They were good travel buddies, it's sad to think we may never meet again.

The next bus pulls up and we pack on like sardines, all of us eyeing Dave with a "Don't leave me!" look in our eyes. I have never been so dependent before, kinda hurts. We fall out of that bus and into the metro station, we don't see Ashton or Kent anywhere. At this point, we start designing how we want their pictures to look on the milk carton. (for you non-Americans, pictures of missing children are sometimes put on cartons of milk - I think they still do that at least...) Anyway, we get on another already full metro and after switching trains once, we get to our stop and climb up the stairs and start walking to Vatican City.

We see the line that has already formed on the other side of the street and, as we continue to walk towards the end of the line, we see Kent & Ashton! They're alive!! No need to send the pictures out! And, being the loyal and wise friends that they are, they motion for us to cut in front of them. And we do. And it was good. We stand in line for about an hour and then they open the doors and we file in.

One of the main things to see at Vatican City is, of course, the Sistine Chapel. However, that is at the end of the building- there are many many many hallways to walk thru and mucho mucho mucho art to see. All of the ceilings are absolutely amazing and so much is going on that it is hard to describe it to you. Everywhere you look, you see history, and opulence, statues, paintings, mosaic floors, and once again- those ceilings! Absolutely beautiful. About an hour later, we get to the Sistine Chapel and, at first, I was let down. After all the gold leafed ceilings and over the top paintings, this seemed small in comparison. However, once I stared at the ceiling (and walls) for a few minutes, I got it. There is something about it, once again, I can't really put it into words. It becomes almost 3D (and I hadn't taken any of my special meds that day!) Plus, all the little things Michelangelo threw in that catch your eye. It was worth it to stand in lines and hallways for 2 hours.

We make our way out of there and I stop to mail a couple of post cards from the Vatican City post office. Then, it's off to St. Peter's Basilica. We have the option to take a lot of steps to the top, but that desire is still not in me, so we just head on in. St. Peter's is what I was expecting Notre Dame to look like. It is massive. Don't get me wrong, Notre Dame isn't small by any means, but St. Peter's is huge. Again, there is so much artwork on the ceilings, columns, statues, masoleum's, my eye can't figure out what to stare at. Perhaps the center attraction, for me at least, is the gold altar they were currently restoring. Also displayed is a past Pope whose name John told me and I forgot. It's not Pope John Paul II though. That was a little creepy to be taking pictures and just look down and go "Oh, hi dead guy. Think I'll be moving on now."

At this point, the group has gotten separated so it's me, Natasha and Lauren and Teryn. We decide to head outside where we run into Luna, Mana, Ashton and Kent who are just going in. We agree to meet up with them in the plaza outside later. So, my four (I'm so possessive, "MY four") head out and we take some pictures of the outside of St. Peter's. From the outside, it looks more like a government building to me. It's odd to see two jumbotron tv screens with Color Bars and the word "Vatican" on them. Maybe I can get a job with the Vatican TV department. I'm sure they wouldn't mind my off color humor. Also, hanging on one of the buildings that flanks St. Peters is a giant advertisements banner for some phone company. Today's service was brought to you by Sprint. Didn't seem right.

We meet up with the other 4 and head towards the Vittorio Emanuele monument where we'll be meeting up with Dave for our tour excursion. The poor man's eye started twitching last night when he gave us the walking tour and stopped in front of this monument and spoke about it at length. The monument is huge, so between that, and the info he gave us, it was driving him nuts that some people in our tour group kept asking "which monument is the Vittorio Emanuele one again?" It became a running joke for the rest of the trip. We'd be in Prague and someone would ask where we should meet, and he'd answer "the huge, white statue with the horse, the Vittorio Emanuele monument." Probably a had-to-be-there joke, but makes me smile still.

Dave then takes us over to the Roman Forum where our tour guides meets us and shows us thru the forum and explains what the buildings once were used for and who all had been there. Unfortunately, I was realllly not feeling well this day in Rome, so I kept wandering off on my own and just taking pictures. So, I'm not able to really tell you any interesting tidbits, just follow the above link and read away.

We finish at the Forum and walk up to the Coliseum. Still, many days later, this hasn't sunk in yet. It's massive and just screams history and is overwhelming. We wander inside and she tells us about the gladiators and what not but, unfortunately, I'm still feeling like crap so I can't really concentrate on her so I wander again. Luna is under the weather as well and we stumble and grumble our way around 'til the tour is over and the others are ready to leave.

It's starting to get dark so we decide to head back towards Piazza di Spagna and find the Ferrari store the boys wanted to see. We find it and all go inside to peruse. Really not my kind of a store, but they've been patient with us ladies so turn about is fair play. We then start looking for a restaurant and find a cute Italian one (because we haven't had enough Italian food in our lives yet- every night it seems). The waiter, who Natasha and I agree looked like Robert Downey Jr., was amusing and we all had excellent dishes. Before dinner, I had gone into the bathroom and at some point had dropped some stamps I had just bought on the floor. Natasha noticed this when she used it after me and put the stamps up on the windowsill for me. It's good that she did this because when she was done with her business, she was trying to figure out how to flush the toilet and decided to pull a handle that looked a lot like a shower handle. That's when the hand held shower head came on, fell loose from it's mounting and proceeded to flood the bathroom floor while washing the walls and Natasha. She got it turned off, apologized to the waiter who would have to clean it up, and came out to the table with her head hanging low. We asked what was wrong and she told us- it was the hardest I had laughed in a long time. Then she told me that she had saved my stamps at least! I went into the bathroom to get my stamps (and see the damage) and I just followed the puddle of water on in. I grabbed my still dry stamps off the sill (thanks Natasha!) and looked at the handle that she pulled. Above the handle, in 3 languages (including English), was a sign that said "DO NOT TOUCH". 😊 I head back out to the table and, much to Natasha's horror, inform the group about the sign. We have many laughs over dinner, and I think the boys were trying to scoot to another table as us gals told adult toy stories and jokes. Sorry guys! Luna had the best story- the lady ahead of her at the airport had packed a, shall we say, special massager in her carry on and the authorities were going thru her bag and pulled it out for everyone to see. The lady was mortified, Luna was mortified for her (but wanting to laugh hysterically) and the airport authorities weren't sure what it was so they were waving it around and pushing buttons. Luna said she couldn't get out of there fast enough.

We head out of the restaurant and go in search of Blue Ice which is supposed to be one of the best Gelato places in Italy. Unfortunately, my stomach is aleady informing me that dinner was a bad idea (I had spaghetti with a very light marinara sauce- WTF?) So, they all grab gelato's and I pass and begin my typical hunt of "where is a bathroom" as we head back to the metro. We find a shopping plaza and stay there for a bit, then we find the metro, hop on, hop off, grab the shuttle bus to the hotel (the shuttle bus couldn't hold all of us this morning which is why we did public bus.) Get back to the hotel and I crash. I really hate my stomach (and my brain, which very much contributes to my stomach problems.) Oh well tomorrow is another day.

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Photos

Infamous Natasha bathroom sign.
Hard to read from this picture, but says "Do Not Touch"

hmm... thought it would be bigger...
The Sistine Chapel I mean.

Freaky lion eye
Unfortunately the picture is blurry but I just couldn't get over the realistic eyes on this lion.

Comments

[Jen Genovese]

Take me with you!
Amanda- What an amazing journey you are taking. Thank you for taking all of us with you. (I wish for real!) Little concerned about discarded rosary beads, tiny penis's (is that how you spell that?) and the plethora of bathrooms, but I'm sure there is a reason for everything! Looking forward to following you around the globe in the New Year! Jen

[Chris]

You captured the Pope's hat?
When in Rome.... don't pull the handle.