Jan 13, Day 3, Tired feet

I woke early like a child who can’t sleep because he’s going to Disney World the next day. OK maybe jetlag had something to do with my irregular sleep schedule.

I threw an apple and orange in my pocket and was off in search of an Italian breakfast, (Pastry and coffee standing up at the bar.) I find the Italian notion of breakfast a polar contrast to the rest of their eating habits. You can forget grabbing a quick lunch from anything but an Italianized hot dog stand in less than a half hour, but it seems eating a pastry and drinking a coffee in 3 minutes while standing at the bar is the norm.

First stop of the day was The Vatican. The Vatican is the only city I know of besides The Bronx that has The as part of the name. I had a moving experience at the capital of the Church. I passed though the geometric pillars of the piazza to admire their life sized Nativity scene. Next to the precipe was a large, but Charlie-Brownish looking tree that stood dwarfed before the colossal citadel-church of Saint Peter. Entering the Basilica guarded by soldiers armed with pikes and dressed in clothes that were probably in style twelve hundred years ago I really had the feeling I was really entering a piece out of history. Inside, the titan carvings breathed in an air of vehemence compounded by the hulking pillars reaching heavenly to support a vaulted ceiling. As I meandered around the apse I noticed a side chapel (that probably has seating for 500) closed off for a wedding. I can’t even imagine what kind of person gets married there. Must be some sort of royalty?

After snapping out of my transfixion, I decided to head down to the catacombs where they have the remains of many of the past Popes. However, I was more impressed by a stone slab that they have inscribed the names and dates of service of every pope as far back as St. Peter 2000 years ago.

The Basilica is the most impressive structure I’ve ever seen-- considering it was made before cranes or power tools. (I’ll have to let you know if I still feel that way after I visit the pyramids and the Great Wall of China….) In the spirit of things I decided to climb to the top of the cupola by my own capacitance eschewing the elevator that goes half way. The view from the top will take away any breath that the climb left behind. But congestion caused by the other people at the top caused me to eat my lunch elsewhere, where it would be more peaceful albeit a less spectacular view.


Sistine Chapel
Marginality fighting, dog
Fountains
Lost
Mist