Roma - Part II

so i got uber lucky on this trip and found the greatest place to stay. very laid back. kinda like the show "cheers" where everyone knows your name except w/o boston and the bar. nevermind... their website description was uber sarcastic and funny, describing the 2 owners as an italian and a canadian. immediately knew this was where i was staying.

upon arrival i was greeted at the door by Mike (shown here w/18 yr old Jessica, a would-be nanny that was fired so they took pity and hired her).
Mike: hey! you the 7pm arrival?
H: yes. you the canadian?
i had to ask why a canadian was running a b&b in italy. turns out mike's sister studied there, was smitten w/a boy and stayed. mike happened to visit and made a side comment about opening a hostel, and a few months later they were in business...

got uber lucky cuz there happened to be a free billy joel/bryan adams concert at the colosseum (where were you guys? i sent an email w/about 9 hours notice for you to get there!) so went w/everyone else staying there w/me. here are the ladies piled in the elevator on our way to the show (L to R): aussie (can't remember name), jess (canada), rebecca (kiwi), beth and erin (2 aussies traveling together).

there were also 3 dutch guys, who like my canadians, i have claimed as my own: koos, domus, and herman. none of them are bankers, but 2 are studying economics... (side note: b, remember our first gopher hockey game in madison and you tried to keep up w/leo? koos is the same size as him and i tried doing the same thing, tho i was ok cuz there were no fishbowls nearby...)

pic is blurry, but there were a ton of people partying on the street. and for being obviously not sober on stage, billy joel put on a good show w/all the classics. good times!

the night before the 3 dutch dudes made a friend. his name is john, a journalist for the herald tribune from boston. he shares a flat a block from the colosseum w/a former coworker who now works for wine enthusiast. i need her job. they send her a boatload of wine every wk to taste and write about. john was kind enough to invite our little entourage over after the show. side note for the pic below: the red head and the dude next to her met on the train a few days beforehand and have been in luv since. cute story for the grandkids, but what if he would have turned out to be a nutjob???

i should have stopped while i was ahead. instead rebecca (kiwi), 2 of the dutch guys, and john the american convinced me to go out to an irish pub at 3am (that kindly put my beer in a to-go-cup for me at closing time), followed by a food run at piazza venezia at 4:30am (home of the wedding cake). in retrospect, i probably did need that crossiant. my evening ended at 5am...

after a 2hr nap, Rebecca woke me up to go Vatican City. we wanted to beat the rush, which seemed like a really good idea the day before... as you can see we got there before most people did.


went inside the Basilica at San Pietro. it's overwhelming in there, which may help to explain my fuzzy photos... was a bit bothered by the extravagance of it all, tho this is an issue i've always had w/organized religion: isn't it a bit hypocritical to be preaching about helping those less fortunate yet decorating huge buildings w/an overabundance of gold, marble, etc??? that's all i'll say on that...
we also visited the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. the line was unreal and it wasn't even 9am yet! this pic was taken after waiting 45 mins, and we still had 2.5 blocks to go...

when we finally got inside, we decided to save the museum for later and headed straight for the Sistine Chapel. i ended up taking a lot of photos of the ceilings in there. they were so cool! and because we were not allowed to use flash, some photos turned out w/crazy colors and some didn't turn out at all...

afterwards we went thru the museum (which had an excellent visiting asian art exhibit) and headed for the exit. after running around for hours on no sleep while attempting to absorb intellectually stimulating artwork and historical pieces, this spiral walkway out of the building was one of the more entertaining things i saw...

the only thing more entertaining was the sign telling you to walk carefully. these things were posted everywhere and everytime i'd see one, i'd bust out laughing as i pictured someone falling and yelling AAAAAAHHHHHH!!! hee-hee. always remember - SAFETY FIRST!

later that day i went to check out the rest of the ruins that i missed due to the concert. here you can see them taking the stage apart.

the almost 2000 yr old Colosseum is really just 2 greek ampitheaters (half circles). nero put the 2 together, made a circle, and dubbed it a roman ampitheater (way to be creative - idiot!). an earthquake put it in the dismantle state it's in now, making it easier to see the other half circle on the inside...

wandered thru more of the Forum... can you see the people at the bottom? that's how big this thing is!


stopped at San Maria Maggiore on my way to the train station. had to catch a plane back to geneva.

i luv roma! definitely could see myself living here for a few years, tho maybe w/o the men. when i told people i was going to italy, i got lots of warnings to watch out for the italian men (including one from my dad...hee-hee!). turned out even tho my italian holiday was over, the men would stick around...