Wednesday, July 20, 2005 - 11:18 PM PST
Finally, the last of the Europe pictures!
Rome was exciting; we saw the ancient sites of the Pantheon, the Coloseum, and the Roman Forum, the latter of which was very interesting thanks to a walking tour in our guidebook which actually explained what the many rocky ruins around us were. Compare that to the last time I was in Rome, where I mostly wandered around randomly and vaguely marvelled about how the Forum was the birthplace of the Roman Empire. How amateurish. This time we had Rick Steves, baby.
Rome also had the most unique restaurant we visited on our trip. Since we were somewhat awkward at ordering from a menu we could barely read, we went to a place where there was no menu, or choice of any kind: every course (and there were many) was dictated by the whim of the kitchen on that particular day. And it was good. Pastas, meats, cheeses, wine, vegetables; each was delicious and served as a separate course.
The Vatican City, within Rome, was interesting to see so soon after Pope John Paul II's passing. Many of the street vendors had a few postcards and trinkets devoted to the new Pope, but these seemed to be there merely out of deferential respect; the rest of their inventory was overwhelmed by tributes and merchandise covered with the outgoing Pope likeness. By the time we arrived, the line to John Paul II's crypt had shortened considerably from the recent marathon waits, but the donations in the bowls in front of his tomb were still regularly refreshed with large bills.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog posts, I hope. (I've been swamped with work lately, but it's levelling off.)