When in Rome...

Rome has a few annoying points. People seems too arrogant to politely make room for me to walk down the street. I hate to be an asshole, but I figure I can't cave to that bullshit; so I just stop and stand right in front of them until they give the little huff and fall behind the person to their right or left. Occasionally, I get a dirty look, but everyone always looks away when I stare them down. But, far and away, the most annoying experience has been my trip to the Vatican Museum (The Sistine Chapel). I tried to go early Saturday morning, hoping that it wouldn't be too crowded. Not knowing that the entrance was around the corner from St. Peter's Square, I wound up in St. Peter's Bascilica first, which was an really impressive church (I didn't witness the optical illusion that the interior dome makes, but I have a picture of it). So I didn't get to the entrance until about 8:30am, and by then there was already a huge... HUGE line. I waited for over an hour before buying my ticket. Then, the rest of the sheep and I were herded through a series of painted rooms, beautiful hallways, and exquisite exhibits before SLOWLY filing into The Sistine Chapel, which under most circumstances would have blown my mind. But after putting up with two hours of numerous tour groups, pokes, pushes, prods, and being literally squeezed through doorways, Most of my being just wanted to get out of the place..... but wait... I had forgotten (or didn't notice) Raphael's The School Of Athens, which I didn't know was painted on one of the walls in one of the rooms throgh witch I had probably walked. Thus, I went through the same crap again to see it. I was half surprised that they didn't slaughter us for meat at the end. To top off the experience, they don't allow pictures to be taken of the chapel (I snuck a few bad ones, of course)... just a bad experience, but a beautiful place.

Sunday morning was spent at the Colloseum and Palotine Hill, both of which had free admission because it was "Culture Week." To be honest, the Colloseum isn't too much to see, but something is still quite amazing about it (perhaps just merely its age). I spent an hour or two just walking among the ruins of what could once house 80,000 people.

I wasn't able to get out to the bars and meet anyone while I was in Rome, but instead, I spent the time getting to know my great uncle, which was just as good if not better...