Day 17
Trip Start
May 08, 2008
1
15
59
Trip End
Jul 08, 2008
Florence,
Italy
Saturday, May 24, 2008
We walked back down South a little bit, then headed East to the edge of the old city where the great surrounding wall to Rome still stands. We had a gelato there, then headed back into the heart of the city, passing countless relics on the way. I took as many pictures as I could, but I really have not gotten a chance to label them all. That will come when I upload them on to here
Piazza San Pietro
. Until then, this is all I remember. We found the Pantheon from its back left corner. We walked all the way around to find the fountain in front, a great view of the building itself, and many, many people. Good time to have that passport/money/ID/credit card holder tucked away, because pickpockets love working places like this. The inside of the building was gargantuan (You know I've always loved that word, gargantuan. It's so rare that I have an opportunity to use it in a sentence.). It was sunny out, and a beam of light cut through the clear, gaping hole in the center of the ceiling, giving an ethereal aura to the place that can't be caught on film or in words. There are still services held every day, but not when Evan and I were there. They close down the building to tourists when that happens, so they must have known we were coming and canceled the appointment. We're kind of a big deal.We continued West to the Castle of Saint Angelo It was 8 Euro to get in and there were a few areas that were closed in order to set up fireworks for some event, never found out what for but it was too rich for us. We took a turn South and then back West on the Via della Conciliazione toward the Vatican. It's a pretty impressive sight, and this road seems to take forever to walk down. In all reality, I think it's only about a kilometer, so it was nothing compared to all that walking we had just done. Total for the day was around 11 miles. We relaxed in the Piazza San Pietro (Saint Peter's Square)
Pope Speaking
. A lot of pigeons joined us. It was kind of gross up close, but fitting from a distance. After we met up with Tai and Dhru, we got a game of hackie sack in and headed over to meet up with Danielle and Kelly to head to the Spanish Steps. That place was overly crowded with tourists that would not get off of the steps so that I could take a good picture. Those assholes, who do they think they are?Game of hackie-sack at the top of the steps, many pictures and minutes later, and we didn't want to leave. However, there was a need for cenare (to eat dinner). We met up with a couple others in this little restaurant right near the steps. The other 12 people in our group of kids wanted to go to the bar crawl, but the four of us decided against it (it was also 25 Euro that night, and we smelled like hell while the most everyone else had gone back to the hostel to shower up). We headed back to the hostel and enjoyed another good night together. There was only one key to the bungalow, so I knew that I would be woken up by drunk kids that night to be let in (each place housed four people, and Tai and Dhru went to the crawl). It had to be better than getting jumped on, right?
Got a lot of bangs against my window and yells from everyone outside at around 3-3:30. I thought it was only the guys because they were the only ones who were yelling (it's not like they had to, those walls were made up of a quarter inch of plastic; not exactly sound-proof. I feel a little bad for anyone within earshot, which includes most of the bungalows in the area, but whatever). It was not only them. I opened the door in my underwear, which my mom can attest to are ... revealing (she bought them for me, they are quite petite). So, I found the first opportunity - right fucking away - and got back in to bed. I had a few join me. Great. So there was near-naked me in a bed of drunken idiots, one of which (no names, just know that it was one of le donne, the one with enormous hair. He was my bed-mate in this queen-sized Gonzo room. There was a lot going on in that sentence, I need a minute to collect myself) ... smelt of sour up of chuck. After I finally got them out of bed, I made la prima donna sleep in the dining area because of the odor, then promptly passed out. It was not looking well for Evan and myself to get up early and go to experience all that the Vatican city had to offer. However, we are troopers, men of steel, and all that crap. You'll see, the next day was quite a conclusion to the trip.
