Conquered Rome in a day!

After our whirlwin trip that took up the WHOLE day from France, we only had one full day to see Rome. No problema! And I say it that way becuase it turns out that Italian is just Spanish with an A at the end, instead of an O.

We started the day with an excellent (full buffet) breakfast included with the room. Ok, it wasn't as full as I like, but it did have some meats and cheese. Can't they just crack open some bacon and sausage with a couple fried eggs? No, we got hard boiled eggs, but some pretty nice rolls and pastries, of course.

The bus was supposed to pick up right outside the hotel (and spare us a couple Euros). It turns out that it was across the FREEWAY (with no sidewalks or shoulders). And over a bridge. We did get on without paying anything, after offering 5 Euros to the bus driver and he just poo poo'd us away. The hotel said it was supposed to the be 1.20 Euro. We got the to Metro (subway) station and paid for an all day pass (4 Euro each) and grabbed the next train to he Vatican.

The Vatican was quite spectacular and of course historic.  I think my exact words were this stuff is really old!  I was trying not swear in church..  I was amazed that some of it was more out of the way, considering the crowds.  It appeared if someone were to get pushed into one of the sculptures, it could have fallen off the pedestal.

Anyway, we got to the Sisteen Chapel (or as we call it the sixteenth chapel), after the long march through the many museums and galleries.  They specifically said there was NO photography of any kind, but this didn't stop most people.  I didn't want to be that obvious, but I did want a couple shots.  Turns out my hip shooting skills aren't too bad (I got the creation of man, which is mostly what I wanted)

Once we finished at the Vatican we had to try "The Greatest gilato in all of Rome", as described by Jared.  It was quite good.  I had the spicy chocolate peppercino and a white chocolate to cool my mouth on top.  This was Awesome!

Our next trip was to the Spanish Steps, then to the Trevi fountain and finally to the ancient Coloseum.  The first two were pretty much a photo opportunity and move on.  There isn't much to do except (throw the coins in the fountain) and take a couple pictures.

Of course the colosseum was unbelievable and gave you the real feeling of how old this place really was.  When we were on the second level I was hoping that they didn't have their first earthquake!  It seems that they have done quite a bit of work to preserve what was there, but 2000 years is frickin old!!!!

When we got back to the terminal we had to stand in the dreaded reservation line to get our tickets to Florence.  We had a couple Indian guys that tried to cut and were stopped by a crochety old Italian qthat wasn't going to stand for it.  He eventually got the kid kicked out of the terminal.  We met a couple college age girls from Mesa and we all enjoyed the show.  After an hour in a hot sweaty line we found out we needed our passes to the get the reservations (never did before).  But the guy told us the machines dispense reservations too (we couldn't find it the first time we tried).  Of course now we were a little peeved and more determined.  Bottom line is you need to go through the whole "purchasing a ticket" thing and then choose Global Pass".   Take note if you are traveling here.  Oh and if they ask for a club code, just enter something bogus and move on.

Random thoughts:

1) How come the Pope didn't greet us at the door?
2) Our guide had the most stereotype English-Italian (you knowa what I saya)
3) The Vatican is like IKEA, one way in one way out.
4) Our hotel had the best meal on the whole trip!  Meat baby!!!
5) Italian stop signs and traffic laws are basically suggestions, I guess.
6) So much graffiti!
7) The chianti is great here, but I still prefer California wines.
8) The freeway does not have a shoulder or a sidewalk.
9) They descibe the time as Swiss or Italian (referring to the Swiss as more precise)

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