So, jet lag is a real thing. We're struggling to adjust to the time difference and not getting much sleep. Hopefully, tonight we'll fall into a coma and will awake feeling in sync with Italy time. We did a Vatican tour this morning and then followed that up with a visit to Castel San Angelo, a fortress on the Tiber River that the Pope could retreat to if the Vatican was attacked. We're pooped. The highlight of the Vatican tour was the penis story. The Vatican is full of statues of naked dudes. You'd almost think the Catholic priests had a gay thing. But I digress. Anyway, it seems that one of the popes back in the 1500s decided that the statues were offensive and ordered his soldiers to remove the perma-boners. They did this and stored the offending members in a box and tucked it away in a dark place where it was forgotten. A later pope decided nudity in art was okay. Subsequently, the box of boners was found and the Pope ordered his soldiers to try to match up the penises with their statue. They tried, sorting according to size, color and fit, but the going was slow. That pope kicked the bucket when only a few reattachments had been completed. The next guy said forget it and had plaster fig leafs made to put on the statues and hide the missing member. That doesn't seem to have been fully implemented as there is a mix of a few statues with intact manhood, some still missing, and some sporting fig leaf jocks. In retrospect, I think the fascination with male genitalia may reveal a problem. That aside, the artwork was amazing. The sheer volume of art, painted floors and ceilings, tapestries, carvings, etc. was staggering. And we only saw a small percentage of the total collection. The Sistine Chapel ceiling was the conclusion of the tour. Absolutely phenomenal, especially when you learn that it was Michelangelo's first venture into painting and frescoes.
No kidding, this was the lobby of some random hotel I spent my last night at on my latest trip there...
Tips I’ve picked up so far: Use an app called FreeNow to get taxis in an Uber-like manner. They won’t respond to hailing and going to taxi stands bites. Book Vatican and many other tours online ahead of time to jump the line. Be sure and do it early from official since tour groups tend to buy them up and jack the price. Waiting times to buy tickets at the door for the Vatican was about 2-3 hours. Evidently, Italy doesn’t have the equivalent of a Surgeon General to warn people about the health risks associated with smoking and vaping. I see so many people doing both you’d almost think they thought it was required behavior. Walking the streets is like something out of Mad Men. Traffic is nuts in Rome. Pedestrians be ware.
Too soon for any major report. So far we’ve just done street cafes since we’ve been hitting the tour venues pretty hard. We followed Rick Steves’ advice and avoided anything near those sites. The pizza is definitely different, but delicious. Thin crust and wood fired, light on cheese and sauce. Toppings are different from US. You can get a 12-14” pizza and a monster-sized fresh garden salad to share for two for 20 Euros. Add whatever beer or wine that you want and it’s a pretty cheap date. We’re going to hit up a more upscale place for pasta tonight. I’ll let you know how that goes.
A few more travel notes: We thought that waiting until September would result in a significant falloff in crowds at main attractions. Not so much. Go early in the day or deal with mobs of people. I’ve reached the conclusion that the reason that so many people smoke and vape here is that they have no fear of lung cancer or emphysema. Given the crazy traffic and the insane number of motorcycle/scooter/e-bike riders weaving in and out of never ending traffic, there must be an endless supply of organ donors to get new lungs from. This city must have one of the highest ratios of drop-dead gorgeous women in the world. Unfortunately, a bunch of them also seem to be social media addicts intent upon getting pictures of themselves posing in front of every monument, statue and fountain. We thought that doing Italy this year rather than next would be wise since next year is a Catholic Church Jubilee event that is expected to draw millions of visitors from around the world. We overlooked the fact that this year is the preparation year for the Jubilee. A large number of main attractions are undergoing facelifts this year, which messes up photography a bit. We move on to Florence tomorrow on one of the high speed trains. I’m interested to see what traveling at a ground speed of 195 MPH feels like. Does anyone have a recommendation for a photo sharing website? I’d like to upload some shots to share in the photography thread.
We took Trenitalia’s Fraeschetta train from Rome to Florence today. 170 or so miles in about 1 1/2 hours. I think our top speed was about 145 mph. That doesn’t approach its top operating speed of 190 mph, but the world sure does whizz by quickly at that pace.
