JULY 29th

started the day with buying a t-shirt that i've wanted for a long time. saw it on the net a couple of years ago i think and stumbled across it in rome! it is the ultimate t-shirt! i shall describe it no further for it demands to be seen not described!

on to the sightseeing tho...
as we wandered to our first destination, we came across a "priest shop". it had all sorts of goodies for sale like portable altars (incl mini-crucifix and vials for holy water), mitres and those big sticks with curly tops (which could be unscrewed into sections to fit into a suitcase!)

we went to Plaza Nouvena which has three fountains, the main one being rather impressive and bearing what appears to be an egyptian obelisk too. there are a few obelisks around Rome which i believe were pillaged from Egypt after various victories or such forth.

we moved on to the Parthenon which was fantastic. (side note: i'm writing this on the 16th of august so whilst i want to include such precise details as when things were built etc, i can't remember and i don't have my Lonely Planet at hand! Google it baby!) the dome of the building has a 9m hole in the middle - purposely built that way. what happens when it rains, i'm not sure. i assume they have some sort of drainage system. that was the interesting thing about the ruins in Pompeii - the richer houses often had one room in the house that had a big square hole in the roof directly over a big square in the floor that was set at about 20cm lower than the rest of the floor to catch the rain. not sure why they did it, but it was interesting to see. maybe Google can explain.

i think the Parthenon was originally built to house the bodies of kings (or was later decided to be used for that purpose) but Raphael (the artist not the ninja turtle) loved it so much he asked to be entombed there too. he died in 1520 but in 1833 they wanted to double check it was true, so with the blessings of the pope at that time they opened it up. found that indeed he was entombed there (DNA testing must've been way ahead of it's time!) and so the pope gave him a marble sarcophagus. lucky boy!
Umberto I and Emmanuelle II are also entombed there and there were even a couple of FBI-looking guards standing in front of Emma 2's tomb. that'd be a thrill-a-minute job i'm sure!

after a cafe di granita (strong iced coffee with cream) we moved on to the Trevi fountain which was crowded but funk-tastic!

after dinner a bunch of us headed out with tripods to take some night shots of the Colosseum and Trevi fountain. got some great shots. i think billy joel and bryan adams had played in front of the Colosseum that night. there was a stage being torn down and various pamphlets indicated that the two had performed that night.

JULY 30th

Usually the Vatican Museum is closed to tourists on Sunday, except for the last Sunday of the month when it is free entry to all (but closes by 1:45pm)! thus we got up at 630am with the intention to skip breakfast and just go and line up. but the K-mumma was up before us and already preparing breaky and insisted that we ate before we left. so we had our hearty meal and then Jeong Hun, Konomi, Jee and I headed off towards the Vatican city.
We got off at the station with about 100 other people and luckily we were at about the head of the pack as we walked to the museum. the closer we got the more we could see a huge line of people. it snaked along the outer wall of the city and was up to 10 people wide in places! we knew we were going to have to wait, but this was looking bad.
so we jumped on the back of the line and started the play the waiting game...

luckily the first part was in the shade, so we could stay cool. fairly soon after we arrived, wave after wave of tour groups arrived and jumped on the back of the line. thank god we beat em!
bout half an hour into the wait, a family of four (i think germans) merged into the line in front of us. Jee was pushing me and telling me to tell them to go to the back of the line, but i tend avoid confrontation and didn't really want to do it. then suddenly Konomi - who is half my height - steps up to the towering anglo-saxons and tells them that they have to go to the back! she said that it's cos she's over thirty that she's stronger! :-)

the human serpent that we were encased in gradually wound its way along the walls of the city. what i thought was the entrance we passed by and turned another corner to be confronted by the real head of the line. bloody long. plus probably about two thirds of the line was in direct sunlight and was pretty toasty. total wait time was one hour and 45 minutes. ouch!!
got in and were put thru metal detectors and x-ray machines. i was wearing shorts but had my zip off pants bottoms in my pocket just in case there were probs getting into St Peter's Basilica. cos they have zips and the security dude ran his scanner over my pocket it beeped. he asked me "is it wallet?" and i whipped open my pocket, flashed him a grin and said "no! they're my pants!". i was quickly shuffled on...

did a kind of running tour of the museum. it's frickin huge! we chose a couple of sections of mild interest and browsed thru them on the way to the Sistine Chapel which is towards the end of the museum. to get to the Sistine Chapel, you have to walk down a few sparse corridors and steps and they continuously repeat a recorded message in about 5 different language. the message states that due to the Chapel being a sacred place, please be quiet and taking of photos or videos is prohibited. no probs i thought - been in enough similar places with similar rules.
first thing when we get in there, the noise! seemed like everyone was having a conversation! and secondly, plenty of people were taking photos. so i whipped out my cam and took a few happy snaps too! Michelangelo sure worked hard! :-)
mind you, i was a little disappointed with "The Touch". i had imagined that it covered the entire ceiling, but it is only one section of a much larger painting. delusions of granduer i guess!
supposedly Michelangelo started painting the ceiling with plenty of detail, but then realised that the details couldn't be seen from the ground so painted the rest with less detail. i reckon he just got lazy when he realised what a task it was gonna be and couldn't be bothered with the details! :-)

stick figures with smiley faces for all the angels! how the hell am i meant to paint all those feathers?! :-)

fairly soon though a few guards (not the dandy swiss guards but normal italian ones) came thru and started shushing everyone and yelling out "no photo!". everyone stopped taking pics but occasionally there would be:

Flash!
"No photo!"
pause...

Flash!
"No photo!"
(rinse, wash and repeat!)

i started taking a video of the ceiling but just holding my cam at stomach level. didn't notice a guard coming thru crowd though and he points and says "you! no photo!". was gonna protest that it was "no photo" but "video" but i just shrugged and turned it off. think it was out of focus anyway.

eventually escaped the museum. we were all starving and couldn't think of where to go or what to eat so just got a flier from a tout which had a lunch deal that include pasta, pizza and a coke for 8 euro. sounded good, but was absolutely shite. the pasta was instant packet crap that'd just had the top whipped off and stuck in the microwave. the pizza was a pita bread with tomato sauce, a slice of ham and a slice of cheese whacked on top and heated. the coke was post mix and rather watered down. but at the end of the day, we were starving and any food in our belly was fine. was a bloody insult to italian food though!

walked thru St Peter's Square and then entered the Basilica. we'd come appropriately dressed after various warnings and past experiences but there were plenty of people who weren't and were being turned away. one couple just ahead of us were turned away cos the woman's skirt was above her knees. as they were walking by, i handed her my bandana (the ever trusty bandana!) and told her to try wrapping it around her legs so it would cover her knees. she did so and got thru! they asked he there was anything they could do to thank me, but i just said remember that australians are friendly people! :-)
unfortunately though, about 50m on, there was another check point where the Vatican Nazis were checking for inappropriate dress and they must've have had sharper eyes cos they turned the couple away. bugger for them...

we waited in line for about 45min to climb the dome of the Basilica. was cheaper to climb by the steps instead of taking the elevator, so we stepped it. actually there weren't that many steps that the elevator covered anyway. but there were 330 steps AFTER the elevator that were advised not to be attempted by wusses or those with weak hearts. :-)
the closer we got to the top, the more people there were and the more jammed it became. and whilst the dome has ventilation holes, there isn't too much airflow. so we're sweating like it's going outta fashion but when we finally got out to the viewing area, it was like being kissed by angels. so cool and refreshing. view was fantastic too! all the people in the square were like little ants!

if you are near the Vatican in summer, have gelati from the Old Bridge Gelateria just across from the city walls - some of the best we've ever had!

had dinner at home then saw off Jeong Hun and Konomi at the station. were feeling a bit down after saying goodbye to friends and thinking about leaving the comfort of the K-mumma's care the next day, so had a beer at Maccas. wandered home to discover that K-mumma had bought 2 cartons of budweiser long necks!! not my usual choice for beer but when it's free, i no complain!! :-)
drank way too much but those damn koreans have a bad habit of refilling your glass as soon as it's empty! ;-)
was great just chatting away and finally stumbled to bed at a very late hour.