Geeky Yet Waterproof

DISCLAIMER: DUE TO A SUDDEN LACK OF GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS IN ROME, THE CAUSE OF WHICH BEING MY UNWILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR ANOTHER NIGHT OF INTERNET, THIS ENTRY HAS BEEN POSTED ONE (1) DAY LATE. SHOULD YOU SEE ME AT SWIM PRACTICE BEFORE YOU READ THIS, DON’T SUE ME.

Today, which marks three weeks of this trip, was our last day in Rome. We didn’t have time to see the Castel Sant’Angelo and the Forum Romanum like I said we would, but we saw a lot of other things. To be able to see all of Rome, I think the ideal amount of time to spend there would be, maybe… 78 years.

We walked to the Vatican (where the nearest bus stop is) and then rode one of those good ol’ Hop-On buses to the Piazza del Populo. The Piazza del Populo is a big plaza surrounded by buildings (including two churches), with an 80-foot obelisk in the middle.
Here we witnessed a situation that can only be unique to Europe: a man selling roasted chestnuts on the corner, with two people playing an accordion duet on the other side of the street, while a horse and carriage passed through the middle. If you ever catch a scene like this in Oregon, call me and I just might award you a sock monkey.

From the Piazzo, we walked a few blocks to the Spanish Steps, which is, in actuality, just a big set of stairs lined by flowers with a sign that says “Do Not Defecate”. But apparently it’s famous for the fact that it has been featured many times in movies as a meeting place in Rome.

A short walk from this was the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain is also a famous monument — it’s even been copied by Las Vegas. It is a huge stone fountain adorned by sculptures of deities, and legend has it that if you throw a coin in, you’ll return to Rome someday. (We threw in a coin.)

Our next stop was another well-known ancient landmark: the Pantheon. You probably know what the Pantheon is, but let me refresh your memory just in case:
Pantheon is Greek for “many gods”. As the name suggests, it was a temple for the worship of many gods. It is a large, round, stone building, with well-recognizable stone pillars outside the front supporting the entrance. The ceiling is dome-shaped, but there’s a big round hole right in the middle! When it rains, you don’t want to stand under the hole, but water will drain through smaller holes in the floor.
Although the Pantheon used to be a place to worship many gods, it has now been converted into a church. It’s strange seeing statues of saints and Roman gods in the same room…

After poking around the Pantheon for a while, we headed over to the Vatican to look through the Musei Vaticani — a huge museum containing ancient artifacts spanning thousands of years.
The first few rooms were full of ancient Roman statues. It was fun looking through these, because some of them we had seen before in pictures and textbooks — and these were the originals. There was one sculpture of Laocoon and his sons being dragged down by serpents, which Isa and I recognized immediately because there’s a picture of it in our Latin books!
It was also fun looking at all the busts of Roman noblemen, because you could tell whether or not the sculptor liked his model… Some looked like Greek gods, whereas others resembled primates.
Another cool thing we saw here was a very large, intricately carved sarcophagus, which turned out to be the tomb of St. Helena — Emperor Constantine’s mother.

After looking at these we went through the Etruscan-Italic room, which contained pre-Roman artifacts from the Etruscans — most of which were from around 700 BC. There was a lot of weaponry and armor, and even some ancient action-figures. One thing we noticed was that many of the helmets had some form of gruesome sword-shaped dent or terrible puncture hole on the back!

One of the most amazing things we saw at the Vatican was the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel was built in the 15th century, and is famous because the whole ceiling is intricately painted by Michelangelo, and one wall contains his fresco The Last Judgement.
Because flashes of light can eventually destroy frescos, no photography at all is allowed in the Sistine Chapel. But every two minutes or so, some tourist who couldn’t follow rules would take an illegal photo, and all the guards would shout, “NO PHOTO!”. I was one of these tourists. Come on, if something says not to take photos, it must be really good, right? Well it was, and I wasn’t about to sacrifice a photo like this. At least I didn’t use flash, and I didn’t get caught!

We were at the Vatican for hours and hours trying to see everything there was to see, and by the end my legs were cramping up just from walking. When we came out, we trekked through the rain to a gelateria and then a buffet restaurant, to have our last supper in Rome.

Thus concluded our last day of this Mediterranean voyage. Rome was definitely my favorite place in the whole trip, with Casablanca second. I hope to come back here sometime (sooner, rather than later), and see the other 95% of Rome we didn’t even get to yet.
Since we’ve reached the end of this trip, I’m ready to disclose how many photos I took in the last three weeks: 1001. No, wait, that was the last three days!
OK, how many total? 4,230 photos and videos. I’m not kidding — that’s how much we saw in three weeks.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this travelogue series, because I sure had fun writing it. It’s going to be hard to get used to The Real World now… sort of like trying to get used to solid ground after being at sea for five days (I almost fell over several times, thinking the ground was still moving). But I suppose a few 5am swim practices will pound it back into me (should I walk out alive).
So, thank you for putting up with this ridiculously long posting, and I hope you’ll excuse me to go play Caesar III finish my Latin homework…