(2-May) Rome Where You Want To

So we're a much more experienced team as we tackle the taxi cab hijackers upon arriving at Rome Central station. See, the trick is an easy one, these guys will enter the station and approach travelers, inviting them to take them up on "rides". When you ask them "How Much?" they will tell you €30, at which point, you know you are being had. Don't allow them to get a hold of your bags. We breezed past them to a long taxi cab line and waited our turn. Always speak clearly and tell the official cab driver the address and ask how much. Our ride was only €15, and he was a good driver.

We checked into our new B&B "Rome Vatican Suites" which is a lot like studio83 in Pompei, only with larger shower, slower Internet, and no AC, but that larger shower had me all goo goo eyed. Not to go into too much er, detail, but guys of a certain size don't really know what to make of these euro-showers. They are slippery, small, and impossible to retrieve a bar of soap if you drop it, best take several bars in with you ;-) The "Bide" is a wonderful invention too, why they are not installed in every American home is beyond me. Must look into cost to install at least one of these at our place when we save up some money.

We got freshened up and went to do some initial exploration of the surrounding area, stopping for a nice lunch at ZiGaetana, a wonderful, upscale pizzeria which was established in 1934. There was outdoor seating, but so many smokers here we decided to venture inside to an upper mezzanine section. From here you can look down two floors to the rest of the main restaurant, you can see the old pizza ovens. Our waitress was a tiny, wiry looking girl. Handling the mezzanine and the patio, working so very hard. We watched her climb the stairs at least a dozen times during our time there, and this might explain why she looks to weigh about 100lbs. We had delicious rustic Italian bread, and thin crust rustic pizza, cool fresh water. Most of the patrons at ZiGaetana were in suits or business attire, and there were lots of Americans.

View from room at Rome Vatican Suites

Outside ZiGaetana we saw a girl preoccupied with her cell phone crash right into a large mussel-bound man, knocking her to the floor in a shocked daze. She got herself to her feet moments later, looked at him as if to say "idiot, didn't you see me texting while walking?" and then stormed off in the opposite direction. This smart phone business has a lot of collateral damage in my opinion.

This part if Rome looks a lot like London's west end with "Benneton", "Izod" and "Tommy Hilfiger" lining the high streets, but turn the corner into St Peter's Square and it's a different story. We stride through what looks like an endless line to the center of the square. Thousands upon thousands of chairs are being folded up by Vatican workers, and in the distance we can see the stage riser at the top of a staircase where Pope Benedict had delivered a recent mass. St Peter's Square is lined with massive columns, not faux columns like you see on HGTV, but actual columns, centuries old, the place is quite breath taking really. I hope I don't sound ignorant or flip talking about the Vatican, it's not a place I know a lot about, other than it being where the Catholic faith is headquartered. Once you are here, standing next to it, mingling with brothers and sisters from every country on the planet, you can't help but feel a bit small and insignificant in comparison to the people who have been here. We will be spending a lot more time here tomorrow and I am looking forward to it, I know Steph is delighted to be here.

St. Peter's Square, Rome, Italy

It was hot so we wandered down some shady side streets, and found our way back to our room at Rome Vatican Suites, on the way discovering the local farmers and fish market. Must check that out on Friday if there is time.

Lots more to write about dear readers, but we have to get an early night, so I'll end here. Night night...