Venice Rome Florence Lucerne Paris
Roma Roma Roma!
- Despite eating veggies, drinking water, popping vitamins, trying to sleep at least 7-8 a night, and washing my hands, I've officially got The Contiki Cold!
- Johnny, tell her what she didn't win!
- So we still had to wake up at 6 am even though we weren't driving anywhere.
- We went straight to the Vatican and saw the paintings of Michelangelo and Rafael in the Sistine Chapel.
- There were tapestries as big as an ocean and paintings that celebrated the destruction of the pagan gods by Christianity. The pagan gods were green and elfy and ugly, and Jesus was golden and radiating.
- Also, there was a HUGE fresco of hell, in which Michaelangelo painted the faces of people he didn't like.
- Michaelangelo was the first editorial cartoonist.
- Then we went to the internet cafe next to the Vatican, where I FINALLY got to write to Ben and write a little blurb in my journal.
- Italy is so filthy.
- I mean, graffitti and dog shit everywhere.
- They drive cute little cars, though. They're like hatchbacks without the hatch or the back.
- So Sarah and Jeri and I got ourselves utterly lost, then we found a nice little sidewalk cafe and had some great pasta. The servers were actually friendly and attentive. Wow.
- Then we bought gelato from a street cart and got utterly ripped off ($4 US for a tiny, tiny little ice cream). Which goes to tell you, ALWAYS ask how much something costs before you order it when you're in Europe.
- Around 1, we met back with the group for a walking tour of the Colloseum and the ruins.
- It was really, really hot, which bothered everyone except for those of us who are acclimated to the desert.
- The guide was a complete and total BITCH, in that really cool groovy uppity fun-to-watch way.
- Some German guy was hanging around our group, trying to get in a free lecture. She screamed at him and told him that he wasn't a paying customer, and to go away. He pretended he didn't understand what she was saying, so then she yelled, "If you don't understand English, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" He then left.
- Also, she told some of the girls in our group that they were Not Going to Melt just because it was a little warm. "You're on vacation. It's not home. Be flexible," she commanded.
- The ruins were really something. They don't make cities out of marble and granite like they used to.
- So then a bunch of us went to see this one church that's nothing but a repository of monks' bones and skulls, shaped to form caves and patterns and bats.
- It was pretty amazing. I thought of the finality, the totality of death. How all skeletons look the same and how in the end, we're all the same.
- There's a plaque at the end of the display that says, "What you are we used to be, what we are you will become."
- Some people felt sick and had to leave.
- It didn't smell as bad as you'd think.
- So then we got back to the hotel around 5 and hung out. I read a book for a while. Jeri took a nap.
- So then we went down to dinner at the restaurant and had -- PASTA!
- Hey, it's better than, like, having to eat fish and celery every night.
- I tried to hang out with the group afterward but I wanted to talk about Roman history and the things we saw today, and they didn't. Well, except for Shane and Surrae from Australia, who are pretty damn cool.
- I took a course in college on Roman history. It is so fascinating to me, as our entire Western culture sprung from it.
- The rest of the group wanted to talk about 1) Smoking pot in port-a-potties; 2) That TV show where you have to eat spiders and let snakes crawl on you; 3) How so oh my gawd totally embarassing we acted at Oktoberfest and stuff.
- So as usual I felt isolated alienated alone and wishing there was someone who I could have a conversation with. I wished I had Ben and my webjournal discussion group around, since they don't look at me all cross-eyed every time I open my mouth.
- Damn, I'm a pretentious, boring elitist.
- I am homesick. There.
- So I went to bed.
Please do not enter the Vatican dressed
like Richard Simmons
The ceiling of a Vatican hallway
Last Supper on a tapestry
The Vatican stairway
Inside the Colloseum
The season ticket holder's name
Some of the cushy original seating
Taking our tour through the Colloseum