Rome

The day has finally arrived. Rome! This is the day Colin's been waiting for and we have a day jam packed. We get picked up at the boat by our driver, Darrio. The drive in was rather uneventful. Colin slept, and I worked on one of my diary entries since I have internet connectivity.

When we get into the city, we pick up our tour guide, Adriana. We head up to the top of a hill that gives up the most incredible view for Rome below. All of Rome was laid out in front of us.

Next we headed off to the Vatican. Now I fully expected crowds, but holy cow! There was just a sea of people. As we walked up, there were three

military soldiers standing there with automatic weapons. How's that for a howdy do. Good news was we had skip the line tickets although it wasn't a line so much as a herd. But we still weren't in the museum <sigh>. Our tour guide set us on a seat and went off to get the actual tickets. Very grateful for the tour guide because if I had to deal with all those people some very upholy thoughts would be coming out.

And we get to enter the museum. We started at the old entrance that was a large spiral ramp...actually two. One for going up and another for going down.

We stepped out into a large square. It was beautiful and surprisingly peaceful. Even with all the people there, you could feel the peace of the area. We didn't spend too much time out there, did I mention temps were up over 95? It was hot. We headed to the first of the galleries and I anticipated this wonderful whoosh of cool air.

Nope, think again. Anyway, we started with the antiquities. The amazing thing about the museum is it's not just the pieces of art that are breathtaking...the ceilings and walls are amazing as well. In fact in some places the artistry of the room over took the art.

We stepped into the "map" gallery with maps of different areas of Italy. but the ceiling had all of my attention. We shuffled along with the herd

until Adriana took over and in her best tour guide mode moved us through the crowd.

The next room was the tapestry room. Unbelievable! These tapestries, intricately woven, beautiful and huge. The gallery had at least 12 feet floor to ceiling - could have been more - and the tapestry filled the wall. I didn't take any pictures, the lights were very low to limit damage to the tapestries and didn't want my camera to flash.

Once out of the tapestry gallery, we began heading toward the Sistine Chapel. We stopped in the cafeteria for a little break - and air conditioning -and Adriana prepped us for what we would see in the chapel since she wouldn't be able to talk once we went in. She told us a story about how the pope went to Michealangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. At the point he'd on sculpted and done architecture, but he felt he couldn't say no to a direct request from the pope. So he spent four months learning everything he could about painting before starting such a masterpiece.

At this point, you think you know what to expect when you step in the chapel. I mean I've seen pictures and heard about it for years. None of that prepared me. I stepped in there and the sheer size and magnitude stunned me still. My expectations were no more than a drop in a bucket. The artistry and the sheer size of what was done is just mind blowing. Unfortunately pictures were not allowed, but to be honest, I don't think there is a picture that could do this place justice.

We continued on and went down into the original basilica. Down here we have some of the tombs of popes and wealthy donors to the church as well as the original altar that is directly above St. Peter's gravesite and directly below the current altar.

We head up to enter the current basilica. Again, expectations couldn't have been further from reality. Once again, my first impression was the sheer size. The main altar where only the pope can serve mass from, the walls, the floor, the sculpture and the art, it was so much. Almost too much.

We saw a beautiful sculpture by Michealangelo, which was amazing and beautiful. Leaving St. Peter's we step out into St. Peter's square. Interesting tidbit, when we turned around to get pictures of the front of the basilica it didn't really look like the entrance to a church.

We made a quick stop for lunch, then walked across a lovely square with three fountains to meet our driver. The second fountain I immediately recognized as the fountain from Angels and Demons where they tried to drown the last Cardinal. The fountain was quite amazing and beautiful in

person.

Now we started in with the antiquity sites. The ones Colin has been so patiently waiting for. First stop was at an annex if you will to the forum and senate. While the senate was under construction after a fire, senators would meet in offices at this site. One of these offices is in fact were Julius Ceasar was stabbed to death.

While we were look at the ruins, my feet were really bothering me and when I looked down there were so swollen if it weren't for the toes I'm not sure you could tell them were feet. So I made a very tough decision...I decided to let Colin go with the tour guide and I would wait in the car. We were running very tight on time to get everything in before we had to get back to the boat and I knew I would slow them down.

So I stayed with Darrio while Colin and Adriana went to the Pantheon. Colin was directed to take tons of pictures which he did. We went on to the Colisseum. I was able to get out and take a look at the outside of the Colisseum. It was truly amazing. Not sure which was the most striking...the size or the age of it. To see something thousands of years old, there are just no words.

Colin and Adriana headed off to the inside of the Colisseum while I returned to the car with Darrio. He drove around to show me several sites...Circus Maximus among others. Then he took me up to a small little square with a building covered in ivy and a set of doors. In one of the doors was an eye hole. Omigosh, when you. Look through it there a a pathway through beautiful trees to a window that has St Peter's dome perfectly centered. It was amazing! I got a picture of the trees, but it was so bright you can't see the dome.

We headed back to get Colin and Adriana and we made one last stop at the Forum. We didn't have time to walk through, but had a wonderful view of the ruins.