I'm waiting...
That's what I thought.
When we last left off with our narrative, the Handlers and I were in Rome and bemoaning numerous public transportation woes. Alas, our luck in that area was not about to improve.
We left the hotel early to make certain to be on time for our 10am tour appointment at the Vatican. We headed to the nearest subway station to pick up a train...only to find that the subway had closed down. Why? The rain. Yes, it was raining. I would go so far as to say it was raining "hard". The Handlers got fairly soaked on their hike to the station, and even more soaked on the way back. However, this rain is not something that would be considered "out of the ordinary" for Michigan weather, and that is why the Handlers could not understand why it would affect the subway? Garibaldi explained that the subway tunnels (apparently built by barely functional idiots) flooded after heavy rains, and then directed us to the bus station.
This is where the badness really began.
Since there were no subways running, there was a huge crush of people trying to get on the buses. And when I say "crush", I mean it literally. Handler 1 managed to get us all on the first bus to the Vatican that showed up, but once we were on the already full bus, people continued to push on. Handler 2 had a much worse time of it than Handler 1 (who was more concerned for the young kids in the Dutch family she was standing next to than for herself). Handler 2 was having trouble breathing in the crowd, and yet people weere still pusing their way on. It was, to say the least, a very uncomfortable ride And a slow ride. And we were late for our tour time.
Luckily, most people were running late that morning because of the transportation issues, so the Vatican folks were accomodating. Handler 1 had decided to get a tour of the museums because they're big...and famous...and don't have many explanatory labelsnext to the artworks. Our tourguide was...fine...but not much better than the free audioguides we'd been working with on our ipods since the beginning of the trip. Waste of money? Perhaps. But at least we're off the stupid bus and out of the rain.
As I said, there's a lot of famous art at the Vatican.
Including the famous "School of Athens" motif painted by Raphel.
We have now seen the artwork of all four ninja turtles. Our mission is complete.
Then it was time for the crowning glory of the Vatican museums...the Sistine Chapel.
As you can see from the posted images above, the docents in charge of the Vatican museum didn't have a problem with people taking photos of the priceless artworks. Nor for that matter, was there any sign particularly telling you not to take photos in the Sistine Chapel. Combine this with the fact that Handler 1 remembered taking photos inside the chapel when she had visited it back some 15 years previously, and you'll understand why she was so surprised to be aggressively accosted by a guard telling her not to take photos. It's not so much the fact that she was asked to put away her precious camera, but the rather mean way in which the request was presented, that pissed both the Handlers off mightily.
Handler 2 decided to practice some more dissidence. He held his little point and shoot by his waist and tried to get some shots of the ceiling. For the cruddy means he had to use to take them, they didn't come out all that bad.
Although our tour had ended we still had St. Peter's Basilica to visit. We headed over to the church next door and found, to our surprise, that large portions both inside and out of the basilica were roped off for a special event. Apparently, the pope made some sort of annoucement about some folks who were being beatified later that day. That meant that we couldn't visit the entire church, but it did mean that we could get a bunch of pictures with comparatively few tourists marring them.
Although it had been the Handler's intent to climb to the top of St. Peter's dome (yet another Michaelangelo creation) they decided to skip it after seeing the line...and thinking about the number of steps they'd have to climb even after riding the elevator part-way.
And thus concluded our whilrwind tour of the smallest state in the world.
Since the Handlers couldn't come to a consensus about what they wanted to do next, they determined to start walking in the general direction of the hotel and see what came up. They crossed the Tiber at the Castel d'San Angelo.
At this point we really needed some food, so we started checking out the menus at every little bistro we passed. While doing so we were accosted by a woman we knew...well, sort of. She and her husband had shared a gondola with us in Venice and we had taken their picture for them. They were nice and talkative and said, "Maybe we'll see you in Rome!" when we told them where we were eventually headed. At the time, we didn't actually believe them.
However, we were not impressed with the offerings of the cafe they were eating at and so continued on. We ended up (late) lunching at an Irish pub. What was an Irish pub doing in the middle of Rome? Good question, the answer is serving up real beer and catering to international tourists' particular sports-watching tastes with multiple tv's.
It was about this time that the Handlers determined that they liked rugby, although they could not for the life of them figure out the rules. They were commenting on what a strange sport it was, when they overheard a bunch of Irish tourists at another table commenting on how lame American football seemed to be based on their observations of an NFL game playing on another television.
To each their own.
Once fed and watered, we continued to tour the city...on foot...because we didn't want to chance the busses. At one point we did try to get on the 'B' line of the subway, only to find that both subway lines had been closed down. That's right, one entire mode of public transportation in Rome was completely out that day. And you wonder why we've been complaining?
I don't know what Handler 2 was saying here about the Imperial Fora, but I'm willing to take caption suggestions...
There was an absolutely spectacular sunset that evening, so Handler 1 was able to get a bunch of lovely photos around the Forum area.
Not wanting to miss anything on his tour of classic Rome, Handler 2 suggested we take a final side trip to the "nearby" Circus Maximus. Already exhausted from the day of touring the city on foot, Handler 1 consented to yet more walking.
Not as impressive as Ben-Hur would make it appear.
We then walked over to the Diocletion baths which were (surprise) closed for the evening. It was too bad, really, because they looked to behuge and fascinating. Afterwards, since we weren't too far from the hotel and did NOT want to have to bother with the bus system again, we finished our aimless wander through the city. Handler 1 was very tired at this point, and not entirely happy with being dragged all over hell's half acre by Handler 2. Also, it was a little too late to be going out looking for food, so we skipped dinner and packed up, yet again, for our departure on the following morning.
Tomorrow, we would leave the city again, first for more visits to the countryside around the city, and then for good. We'll be utilizing public transport again...let's see how well that one works out for us.
Quote of the Day:
"NO PHOTO!!!" - Overbearing Vatican docent/guard.
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