Day 35 - Closed

As one would expect, much of Rome is in church this morning, and probably won't be working at all today. It took me a while just to find an open internet point (and one with the dirtiest mouse of all time. You know how old ball mice get a little gunky once in a while? This mouse was so gunky that the gunk all came off in one big strip. Wow. Also the space bar doesn't always work, so don't be surprised ifsomewordsruntogether). I'm glad I'm not leaving on a Sunday. I'd never be able to get my pictures burned to CD. I'm also glad to take a day off after yesterday, but I'm getting ahead of myself. First let's see if I can remember what I did after I got off the internet yesterday. Oh yeah, I went to Saint Peter's. Heh. Yesterday had to be a big day if I forgot Saint Peter's.

Saint Peter's is monstrous. The giant pope statues are freaky. The treasure room was expensive (six euro, but you get the audioguide for free), so I was often the only person in the room with millions of dollars in artifacts. The reliquary of the holy childhood was one of my favorites, supposedly containing straw, cradle fragments, and some of Mary's veil from the nativity. I saw enough peices of the true cross there to build a six inch by six inch cube, I think. I saw enough diamonds to make a hundred prospective fiances very happy. If they build cars out of bronze, they couldhave made two out of Pope Sixtus' death sculpture. I forget which of the Sixtusses (Sixti?) it was from. I wish Pope's could be more original.

Security is understandably tight. The lines for the metal detectors were quite long. Not as long as this morning, I imagine, but then they probably had all twenty of them running as opposed to the three that were active when I visited.

Despite the fact that they're in one of the most amazing buildings in Christendom (and got in free to boot), tourists are still tourists. I saw a lot of impatient, resentful, and just generally not awestruck faces. It's a shame that a nonbeliever such as myself seems to appreciate some of these sites more than the devout.

Okay, so I've got about twenty more minutes of internet time in which to describe yesterday's "Vini Vidi Vici" hike. Basically, I walked the circumference of most of the interesting sites of Rome. I had originally just intended to walk around Vatican City to say I walked around a city in a day. Or is Vatican City its own country? Regardless, Rome is so damn small, I couldn't stop. 7:45 AM until 6PM or so. It's a full day. I took pictures along the way, so I should be able to reconstruct the walk completely when I get home, but for now, just the highlights.

• Western Hills. From the southwest of my map (along the Viale Delle Mura Aurelie) you can look west and see where the rich and famous of Rome must live. All the houses just stop, except for the occasional sprawling villa with beautifully manicured lawn. I saw a delivery boy dropping off boxes of groceries outside and immediately was reminded of the demo mission for Hitman 2. :)
• Southern Landmarks. The south is the ancient city. It was approaching noon and I thought I might catch the tour at the Colloseum, so I high-tailed it around Circus Maximus (which is pretty much just a big depression / jogging track / dog park). I whipped by the entrance to Palantine Hill and bought my ticket. Much thanks to the Let's Go guide at the hostel that recommended picking up the combined ticket at Palantine as it saved me a 45 minute line at the Colloseum. Then it was the Colloseum. Some guy at the front wanted to charge me eight euro for a tour. No thanks. Let's Go said three fifty. I actually never found the tour, but I didn't really care. There are tourguides everywhere, so you can't help but hear. And none of them were saying anything I didn't already know. 5000 animals died in the first 100 days of the Colloseum's opening. There was sand on the floor to soak up the blood. That sort of claptrap. Mostly the Colloseum was big. Palantine Hill, on the other hand, was really cool. Mind you, I have an affinity for ruins. :) There were parts of many brick structures, pieces of many types of marble columns, and what could have been fragments of original floor stones around. It was very cool. Also, it gives you a much better view of the forum and related ruins than you get by walking around between them.
• East Rome. Bleh. It had some okay parks and a really funky building with a mosaic museum, but mostly the east was pretty bland.
• North Rome. This is where the zoo and mega park and modern art museum are. I went around, so I didn't see too much, but it was still pretty.

There's more to say about my day trip, but you'll have to wait for the slide show as I am out of time.

Ciao!