Is who I feel like as I schlep around Rome. It’s raining! Who turned the sun off and made the rain start falling?
It’s a good thing that I prudently decided to get an early start this morning. I was at The Vatican in line for the museums and the Sistine Chapel at 07h05 this morning. That was an experience in itself. There is no one there policing the line and it is raggedy as hell. I had two women break in front of me then try to make their way ahead of the people who were ahead of me. I had my eye on them and later found out that the other people had their eyes on them as well. We got in before them and I’ll leave it at that. By the time 08h45 arrived, there were even more people trying to make their instant way to the front of the line. Needless to say, I didn’t walk into the Vatican feeling full of religious piety or anything near that.
The Vatican is awesome as a study of art and opulent buildings goes. There were gilt edged decorations everywhere I looked. Whether it was on the wall, on a painting frame or just because, take my word it was everywhere. The paintings were spectacular. I can’t really expound on the mastery of the painters because I never took an art appreciation class (or I did and forgot). However the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is absolutely impressive.
By the time I was finished with the tour and was ready to go, my back and feet were screaming at me in Italian and a few other languages. I had to go back to the apartment and take a siesta. Unfortunately it lasted three hours.
I mentioned that it was raining here but I also must mention that it is cold as not-Rome here as well. I went to the public gardens near Villa Medici yesterday and was sooooo cold. On my way back to the apartment, I met a guy at a café or bar or something who invited me back for a café later that day. Did he say free? You bet I was there. It could have been a free dead worm and I probably would have taken that as well. Anyway, for those of you who have read my profile, you may know that I put out there that I would love to marry a European man and have a little farm in Italy with little bambini. Well, I got part of that wish yesterday. My free café friend wanted to marry me. He also wants to take me to meet his parents (he may be a little serious you think?) tonight. However he wants to move to the US and open a pizzeria that we will work in together. He obviously doesn’t know about my aversion to cooking…