…”the polizia are a bit more beautiful.”

FYI…This is post 2/2 today; I broke the two masses of text up for ease of reading.

29.06.2009

Today, we were all up at sunrise, puttering about, and planning out our day. We had breakfast at the hotel, under the lurking eye of the (absolutely terrifying) owner. I felt that if we had looked at her in the wrong way, she would’ve beaten the crap out of us with a cappuccino cup and a danish. Immediately afterwards, we went on an adventure to buy bus tickets so that we could get to the Vatican. I have now officially established that absolutely everything here is gorgeous. The Vatican was absolutely stunning, with St. Peter’s Basilica taking the cake. We didn’t stay inside for very long, since large hordes of people had arrived to attend the holiday mass, but it was enough to marvel at the grandeur of the building and its art.  The choir was lovely, though, and we got to see the new pope being pope-y. After frolicking around, we walked to Castle St. Angelo and took some more photos while listening to some Aussies being…themselves. At this point, my mom and I were really curious as to what the difference between the Carabinieri and the Polizia was (we had seen a lot of both over the past two days), so we found some policemen and asked them. Here are the facts: The Carabinieri are more of a local police, whereas the Polizia are state police. What you should also know, as said by the youngest of the three policemen we had consulted, is that “the polizia are a bit more beautiful.” Now you are up to speed.

As far as the rest of the day goes, it was mostly spent doing more touristy biz; that is to say, we actually went INTO the Coliseum and ye olde fangirled before hitting up the Parthenon and several other awesome Piazzas. What is absolutely fascinating about Rome is that no matter where you go, there will be some gigantic, beautifully constructed marble building just hangin’ out. It is usually a church, with hilarious Latin phrases like “Always Immaculate Virgins” carved into the stone above the entrance. The scale of these buildings is preposterous, and completely awe-inspiring. Honestly, just staring at the Parthenon’s marble columns and attempting to fathom their dimensions gave me an aneurysm.

Fun foreign misspelling of the day: “Sanwechees” = “Sandwiches,” apparently.

It’s not even 9 pm, but after 6 solid hours of walking in the sun, I am about ready to collapse. I bid you adieu til tomorrow, and our drive to Firenze!