The kids have picked up enough Italian to get by, kind-of. Mostly they just use gratzi, prego, sie, no, arrivederchi, ciao. I love answering the phone "Pronto!" and do it as often as possible. Much Italian can be inferred by reading it, but listening is another world. Of course in most exchanges with merchants there are little problems. Pointing at what you want works well to a degree. A few of the boys are very excited about, and anxious to use, a new phrase they have learned -- "Ti do una pizza in faccia!" It means "Pizza in your face!" They like the idea of getting in trouble by shouting this at someone, and are spoiling for the opportunity.
Miss Guinee wakes them up with "It may be cruel, but it's true. It's 6:45." We have a full day of Rome touring planned. Continental breakfast is now accepted with only one complaint: "The breakfasts in this country are killing me." We climb aboard and shortly we are following the same route as the night before to the city. It's really very close, and we see that the traffic and driving habits of the night before were not an aberration. As we pass by the Vatican again, Ignazio points out the radio transmitter tower and explains that it broadcasts in many languages and is extremely powerful. "So powerful in fact, that you often get the audio signal on your television, and your tape player, and your washing machine. Ignazio is very cool, and even his corny jokes go over very well with everyone.
At 10:30 we arrive at the ruins of the Coliseum which we don't actually enter. There are many cats here, and Jessie gets to pet some, which pretty much makes her day. Then we go to the Roman Forum that we looked at last night in the dark. It is less glamorous during the day, but no less impressive. It is obvious that a very different city of colossal proportions was here a long time ago, and actually still is. Today's tourguide tells us about all of it, but frankly it's pretty exciting, and many people are too distracted by the actual stuff to listen about it. But enough of the stories get heard that we all understand why there are big holes in all the columns, and we've heard about the 7 hills of Rome enough times that it sounds familiar. There are many street vendors hawking their wares aggressively. The kids are pretty savvy shoppers, I'm pleased to see.
One dollar for 20 postcards! You no pay to look!
One dollar for 20 postcards! Cheaper than a-KMart!
(laugher)
One dollar for 20 postcards! Blue-a light special!
(laughter)
C'mon Americans, spenda you money!
Next we travel to the Vatican. Since this is a Catholic school, most of the kids are pretty into going there. It has real and personal meaning to them. We step off the bus and just that easily we're in St. Peter's Basilica! You hear it's designed to look smaller than it is, but it really doesn't look big at all. It's only when you compare a little teeny person to a pillar or obelisk that you prove to your brain that the scale is huge. For the first time in the entire trip we can travel without jackets or umbrellas. It's amazing. We bask in the sun like the cats at the Coliseum. Next we go to the Vatican Gift Shop. You can have anything you buy here blessed by the pope and delivered to the hotel the next day. This is a pretty cool service, and many people take advantage of it. You can also get Vatican stamps and send a postcard, so many do that too. They have rosewood rosaries that smell like roses. We buy them as well. You want to talk crosses? You name it. Wooden, metal, plain, gaudy, elegant, ugly -- every taste. St. Christopher medals, hologram Jesus pictures (his eyes open and shut). Everyone is very respectful, but some of the wares do surprise us a little. We go back to the Basilica and into St. Peters Cathedral. I think everyone is just a little awed to really be here. After a little while we finish up our Vatican visit with a walk through the Museum and, of course, the Sistine Chapel. The Museum is really packed to the gills. However the crowds are so numerous and so fast-moving, that everyone I spoke to agreed that it was no way to see art. Although there was some consensus that the mummy was very cool. The Sistine Chapel is what it is. After all the ceilings we've looked up at in the past week, there may be a little feeling of "one of many". But it's still a little impressive to look up and see "it". Unlike other artworks that are better seen in person, I think this one might be better studied from pictures. The ceiling is sooo high, that it's really pretty far away. We followed a back exit that Ignazio told us about and got to see a crew taking soil sample "plugs" from next to the cathedral with a big drill, then we were out in the Basilica again. A few people took extra trips inside or grabbed lunch from a truck that sold pizza and "big doughnuts" (about a foot diameter, I think).
Then we we're off to the Piazza Venizia again. This is a huge white building with the Tomb of the Unknown soldier at the entrance. There are soldiers standing guard there always. They look very bored. I don't imagine anyone has attacked the tomb in a very long time. The Piazza was where the embassy to Venice was, when they were all separate states. Italy was only united into a country a century ago. We all decide to go with Miss Guinee and walk to the Spanish Steps, a popular gathering place about a half-hour north. A funny thing happens on the way. We haven't quite gotten the hang of crossing a busy Rome street yet. Per Ignazio's advice we try to cross as a big group. If you don't have the numbers and some momentum they won't stop for you. It's really a bizarre game of chicken. But this means the person who leads us into the intersection may doom all of us if their judgment is poor. Knowing this, one of our number sees an opening in traffic and takes it. Excellent initiative. Unfortunately this is a compound intersection. The 1st half is the uncontrolled type and the second has a traffic signal. Just as we hit the middle of the street the light changes against us. Apparently Roman drivers wait for just such a chance. They are off the start line like at the Grand Prix (you would think in the city everyone would have automatic transmission. They don't. Everyone is a car enthusiast and has a stick. Do you see a pattern emerging here? Do you see how this pattern is bad for the circumstance I am describing?) Usually when pedestrians get "caught" in a crosswalk there is honking and driving around, etc. Not here. They just come at us full speed. It's completely surreal. They charge us! We scatter and run, literally screaming. Sandra apparently decides that the best defense is a good offense and she creams a scooter. Wham! Now there are one fewer of them, but we are still outnumbered and we retreat to the relative safety of the sidewalk to regroup. After the next cycle of traffic light, the part of the group that hesitated comes over to compare notes with the part that lost. "Who took out the scooter?!"
We stop at the Trevi Fountain again and pump some more coins in. Apparently some people have a desire to commute to Rome daily. We continue on to The Spanish Steps and take our differing paths. Mel wants to get a really bad sketch done, and I want to fruitlessly search for a Gelatto place that a friend of mine emailed me about after he read the web page. So we were off in two directions. The directions were right at the base of the Spanish Steps, 1 block, next to the American Express. We go in and out of 6 little streets. Finally we settle on a little place that gives us some pretty yummy stuff. It's not the right one, but we like it anyway. While we eat a bizarre truck with a mobile Sony Jumbotron built into it drives up. Apparently they have decided to make an ad-hoc entertainment/advertising show in the middle of this area. It's filled with tourists, so I can understand the draw. However, it's obnoxious. We didn't come to Rome to watch television. We regroup and look at really bad charcoal drawings of Mel, Betz, and Jules. My suspicion is that they got a discount if they took drawings of other people that were already done and laying around.
It's time to get back, so we start out on a slightly different path than how we had come, approaching the Pantheon and its fountain. It's quite small for such a famous place. A group goes for pizza (yes we ate pizza about 80% of the time for lunch), just in case our dinner turns out to be fish, since it is Friday and it is Italy. Next we all make our way to St. Ignatious Church. There are some amazing frescoes on the ceiling, as well as a sarcoughogous of the saint. But I found the most interesting thing to be the dome. Now we've seen a lot of domes, but this one is truly unique. It's little. But the inside it's painted to look taller. A lot taller. There are columns painted in and a fake cupola. From the pews it looks almost convincing. However, when you stand underneath it, it's 100% obvious that the angles are all wrong. The cupola is painted way off in one corner and all the columns reach towards that. It's an optical illusion from the pews. And it's pretty effective. It looks like a tall dome. We re-mount our touring bus and go back to the Aurelous Hotel. Miraculously our parcels from the Vatican are already waiting for us, freshly blessed. Plus our group pictures overlooking Florence have come. We have dinner, which does not turn out to be fish (it's chicken).
Liz and I were in front of the fountain and Dayna was taking our picture. And this guy comes up to me and puts his arm around me, and wants to get into the picture. I moved and he moved with me.
So you took the picture with him?
That's all we could do.
End of day 7.
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