Day Two

Here is day two from my journal for you.

June 8

9:46 pm Italy

So today, Liz and I woke up fairly early today. I found it kinda hard to convince myself to get out of bed, probably because it was 1am in Toronto. However, I am surprised that I haven’t really felt jet lagged AT ALL so far. How strange compared to when Bevan, Maret and I got to Helsinki! Maret could attest to my jet leggedness when we got to helsinki. I was such a mess! (getting a little side tracked) So anyways. Breakfast was from 8 - 9am and I think we got there around 8:30. We were served a small bun with a dish of jam for spreading and coffee or tea. I had tea....and my bun. We ended up asking for another bun because we were not quite satisfied with one. 

After we finished out two smal buns....with jam...... we headed straight for Rome. The plan - walk our way across the city to the Vatican, and hit the Trevi Fountain on the way,  and then go back across town again to the Collaseum. As we were walking to Trevi fountain we hit a few smaller landmarks on the way. We also got to go into the Pantheon, which was really cool. When we were standing outside the doors of the Pantheon taking pictures there were these guys standing outside dressed as old Roman soldiers, and offered to have their picture taked with me. He told me that it would cost me one Euro, and I kinda chuckled a little, and then he looked and me with this straight face and said, “really.” I laughed again, thinking he was doing one of those things that old men in Canada do where they make these silly jokes about paying for strange things. (keep in mind this is all happening very fast) So the guy called his costumed soldier buddy over for our photo op, and Liz took the picture with my camera and snapped the shot. Then as she was giving my camera back to me one of the soldier guys took my camera from her and took a close up picture of just me. I actually turned around and walked away without paying because at this point because I didn’t know any better, but as it turns out... he was being serious!!! The only reason I realized it is because as Liz and I walked to the entrance, the soldier guy started coming towards us and calling for me, and she turned to me and said, “I think they were being serious.” So I turned around and begrungingly took out one Euro. I bet they were gypsies. (We actually ended up seeing more costumed guys at the Colloseo (I’m gonna start writing that in Italian because its the only way I know how to spell it properly) who were offering pictures with them for money - no, I did not fall for that trick twice.)

The Pantheon was beautiful, so much art, and sculptural work. Truly amazing! It was really difficult to take pictures inside becuase it was a very dark room, but I realized that pictures would NEVER do it justice. We went on to the Trevi Fountain, which was a really beautiful fountain, such beautiful sculptural work. I would definitely go back there. Then we went to the Vatican, and on our way we ran into the river, and the Castle of Sant Angelo. We didn’t go in because we had to pay, and we were too cheap to pay to in a castle that we’d never heard of. But walking up to it was fun anyways. The Vatican was SO CRAZY!! Actually fairly similar to what I was expecting. I had to buy a shirt before we went in because I was wearing a tank top, and you have to have sleeves and short to at least the knees to go in. I actually packed a shirt this morning before we left for that very reason but then forgot to repack it after I tore apart my bag to make sure that I had my camera. So I went to the closest place and bought one of those I <3 [insert city] shirts. We went into the main cathedral (I actually can’t think of the name) GORGEOUS!!! Words, pictures, nothing can compare to the things I saw there. Sometimes it was almost useless to take pictures inside either because it was too dark or just beyond what 20 megapixels could ever portray. There was also these special rooms to the sides that were set aside for prayer. We totally went in and sat in a pew and watched the preists and others praying. Once we got to the Vatican we had to go find the Sisteen Chapel which was actually in a museum. we had to pay to in, which I wasn’t really expecting. We got in the museum and started walking through it, first it takes you trough this modern building which was built for tourist reasons, I’m sure. Then we walked outside to this courtyard (Dad - the grass was freshly cut and there were CLUMPS in the grass :0, at the SISTEEN CHAPEL, DAD, CLUMPS!!! Anyways, then into this other building, and older chapel thing. We walked through and there were all kind of sculptures, art, and everything. We had to walk through this really long corrider of art, paintings, sculptures (not that I’m complaining here - it was beautiful, just unexpectadly long) where around every corner you thought you were going to walk right into the Sisteen Chapel, but you never get there. Suddenly, when you least expect it. You’re IN the Sisteen Chapel. Tears flow. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I don’t even have words to write about it. Vision is truly a different source of beauty, one that sometimes words aren’t even worthy for, and this is one of those times. I could have spent hours in that one room. 

Regardless of my inner protest, we left the chapel. I wish I were there right now though.

We left the vatican feet sore, and achy by now. I ate some pesto linguini at at place across the street, and we headed for the Colloseo - on the other freaking side of the city (remember, aching feet!) We walked and walked and walked even further. We ended up taking the very very long way around to the Colloseo because we got really turned around at one point, and then we finally arrived. By this point its 6pm. When we got there another tourist in the line up came and said that she was informed that they were closing in 15 minutes, but that we could buy a ticket today to come see the Colloseo tomorrow. We decided to do that because it meant we wouldn’t have to wait in line. When we got to the ticket booth, we asked when they were closing and they said we had to be out by 7:15. Well, that’s not a problem. We had more than an hour. That tourist woman must of had her time zones all messed up! So we went in, checked it out, and had plenty of time to take our time and take some pictures. Then we left and went to Termini Station (the main transit hub - like Union Station in TO) to buy our train ticket to Siena for the following day. Mission accomplished. Buy dinner. Done. Take it back to our hotel, shower, eat - check! We got here around....Maybe 8pm, maybe 9. Now we’re exhausted. I got my camera battery charged. Wrote my journal for the day. Now I must sleep. We have a busy day of communting ahead of us tomorrow.

Oh, and also. As I repacked my backpack tonight I discovered Bevan’s shirt that I put in a ziploc bag to preserve his scent. It was like heaven!! Better than the Vatican! I miss my love!