Rome is where the heart is
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Rome,
Italy
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
In the sun, Rome is a fantastic, romantic city. However, Rome in the rain is a lot less fun. In two days in the Italian capital we have experienced both sides as we came, we saw and we took lots of photos of the Colosseum, the Palatine, the Piazza Navona, the Panthenon, an array of jaw-droppingly beautiful churches and the Forum. Nothing funny happened on the way to the latter. One really intersting place we visited was the Church of the Virgin Mary which has, for some reason, 4 chapels underneath the church that contain the bones of about 4,000 Cappucin Monks. But they are arranged in a very unusual way and have been turned into arches, light fittings and some dead monks have even been hung from the ceiling. it is gruesome and well worth going to see - what is it with the Cappucin order, as it reminded us of the church we visited earlier on this trip in Brno. I've narrowed my potential order list down to Franciscan, Benedictine, or even this one: http://prayerfoundation.org/become_a_monk.htm
There is a lot to see in this city, and often you just stumble across a sight that is thousands of years old, or a palace formerly inhabited by some nobility. Before we came here though, we thought people would be pretentious and aloof, but we haven't experienced that at all. We have also avoided the tourist scams that we were warned about and the people on scooters that go past you, robbing you. We haven't been robbed in Rome, although paying €70 a night to sleep in somebody's damp cellar is pretty close to robbery.
