Roma è belissima

We went out right after having breakfast at around 7.30. First stop: Vatican City. It's amazing how a country can be this small. I mean even Bukit Jelutong is way larger than the city state. The Basilica di St. Pietro takes up about half of the land area. It's huge. You won't realise how big it is when you enter, until you walk right to the end, and turn back to see how small are the people who entered from the same door you entered. You can see work of art in every corner of the Cathedral. It makes you wonder just how rich the church is. There are gold sculptures on the walls and pillars, and there ware also golden religious ornaments that the Pope uses during his masses. There's gold almost everywhere.

Then we went to the tombs beneath the Cathedral. There are two tombs that are visited the most. The first is of course the tomb of John Paul II, and the other is the tomb of St. Peter himself (one of the 12 apostles). We then went to the Vatican Post Office. I wanted to buy some stamps so that I can get some change in Vatican euros, but alas there was a sign at the counter that said "No Vatican Euro Coins Here". Damn. We wanted to go to the Capella Sistina (Sistine's Chapel), but to get there we have to go through the Musei Vaticani, thus paying the entrance fee of 12€, which is quite expensive. So we decided not to.

Maybe we picked the wrong time of the year to visit Rome or maybe we were just being unlucky. Almost all the monuments are being restored currently, and are wrapped in white cloth. We went to Piazza del Papolo, Piazza di Spagna, and Piazza Navona, all of which are covered in white cloth. The worse has got to be Piazza di Spagna. It's the famous spanish steps in Rome that you always see in any film made in Rome (some that I can remeber are Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Lizzie Mcguire). Not only it was covered in white cloth, but there's also a Versace advertisement on it. How can they allow that? That's just bad. Don't tell me they're going to paint the Colosseo next in red and white for a Coca Cola advertisement.

Next we went to Fontana di Trevi. The famous fountain that, again, you always see in movies filmed in Rome. It's where people waste a few coins to throw into the fountain to make their wish. Then we went to il Pantheon, the largest dome built in its time. It houses the tombs of famous italians like Raphael (painter/sculptor) and Umberto (king). Then we went to Castel Sant'Angelo. What makes it unique is the bridge in front of the Castle. There are about a dozen of statues lining up on both sides of the bridge. Normally, the sight from the other side of the Tiber river, looking at the bridge that leads to the Castle is a beautiful one. But when we arrived, there was some sort of a bazaar right in the middle of the bridge. Once again Capitalisme triumphs.

Then we went back to the Stazione Termini, to buy our train tickets to Pisa (we've decided it'd be a waste to come to Rome and to not visit Pisa). Since there was still light, we went again to Colosseo to take pictures. We even met with some lost looking ancient romans. They were everywhere. People disguised in Roman legion costumes. They keep on yelling "Come take pictures with us". It didn't occur to me that these people are actually actors, who offers to tourists to take picture with them for a small fee. I thought they were hired by the local government to promote the city's culture and history. So I said "Yeah, I'll take a picture with you". And after a few shots, I had to pay 5€. If only I knew.

And then we ate Pizza. My favourite dish in the world. Pizza was created in Napoli (or Naples). It was ariginally a food for poor people. Instead of having meat, bread, cheese and vegetables seperately (which is costly at that time), they simply put everything together and thus Pizza was created. It became a national food when it was presented to the royal court. The Italian queen then was Margherita, thus the name of the very basic Pizza, Pizza Margherita. Pizza is to Italians just like Nasi Lemak to Malaysians. They eat Pizza for either breakfast (though there aren't many who actually have them for breakfast), for lunch, for dinner, or even in between meals. You can see Pizzerias everywhere. You have a traditional and classic Pizzerias, McD style Pizzerias or even Pizzerias that sell Pizza by the Kilo. Mmmm Pizza.

I slept early at around 2100. Tomorrow we're going to Pisa.