When in Rome....

We started our day like any other, pretty mellow morning, head for breakfast and get a plan together.  We were going to hit the Vatican, thinking it would be mellower than on Saturday, but ohhh, were we wrong! 

The start to our day!

Headed to the bus station

Second try to close the door.

to catch the number 40 bus and as we got there we watched people trying to get on and off the bus, it was chaos!  There were so many people trying to push on that people were grabbing others to drag them off.  I’m pretty sure I saw two fist fights just on the one bus.  We figured, no way are we trying that, so head for the Metro.  Well turns out the line we needed wasn’t working or so we thought.  So back out to the bus to wait for the next one.  They were supposed to come by every 6 minutes but we waited for 30 until the next one came.  As it circled around we were first in line but by the time it stopped there were 100 people standing in front of us!  We watched as people pushed and jammed, one woman was pinned to the bus as others pushed by.  As people tried to get leverage to get on at the end, one person just reached up and grabbed someone’s hair to pull themselves on!  It took the bus driver 3 tries to close the door as people jammed and squished on so the doors would close!!!  So needless to say, we weren’t getting the bus today.  Later we were told that there was a strike so that’s why the metro and so few buses were running.  Turns out they have these “strikes” every last Friday of the month!  Don’t know why they don’t just call it a long weekend and let everyone know not to attempt travel on those days!

Okay, new plan,

Three pm at the Pantheon exactly.

cab ride to the Pantheon and walk home.  This part of Rome was really cool.  All these narrow streets and super old buildings and then there was the Pantheon.  Its incredible how in Roman times (I think) someone could design and construct a building like a sun dial so that the light illuminates all these statues inside the building.  I’ll let the photos speak for themselves as it was pretty cool.

After that we wandered the streets and kept running into these crazy churches.  Usually you’d just be completely awestruck by these buildings but when you see dozens of them...hate to say it but, “oh look, another church!”  The statues and paintings are just incredible with the detail and condition of them.

Pretty incredible design and construction.

On our stroll home we managed to navigate the streets of Rome and find our way back to the hotel.  Found an English book store on the way so we had to stop as we’ve all read through most of our books and we still have two months left!  Stocked up on some reading material and found a place for dinner.  We had a pretty mellow evening as Alyssa enchanted us with stories of crocodiles and kangaroos with long, sharp, killer toe nails!  Off to bed as it’s going to be an early start to see the Vatican tomorrow... I’ve been told the strike is over!!!

Some other crazy building and Alyssa's photographic eye.

 Just another crazy church.

 

Simple bracket supports for the balcony.

I almost forgot... we found out what Santa Claus does in the summer.  He’s touring in Rome!  Maybe he’s having a meeting with the Pope!  We even got photographic proof....

Santa on his off time!