The BIG Tourist Day

Day: 19

I had agreed to meet Matt and Dan this morning at 8:30am out front of their hotel to spend the day doing some hard core sightseeing. Now, everyone needs to understand, I love to travel and do my fair share of sights, but usually at a rather leisurely pace, possibly with a nap around the early afternoon. Matt and Dan only have a 9 day trip, so they were both bent on seeing everything in Rome in more or less one day. Believe me it is quite the endeavor, my dogs are still barking from all the walking.

We started the morning by making the 45 minute trek across town to get to the Vatican, where mass was being held by the pope (I didn’t even remember it was Sunday). After passing through the huge line, metal detectors and a series of guards we were admitted into St. Peter’s Basilica where we did actually see the pope (the small purple dot, bottom center of the picture), and listened for a while well he ranted on in Latin. The crowds were huge, we could barely squeeze through to look at the church itself and all its renaissance glory. We decided to make a bolt for the door a little while before the mass was over to try to beat the crowds to the Sistine Chapel around the corner and look at its ceiling. A few blocks later we came to a sign that said the Sistine Chapel was closed on Sundays! Who ever heard about a Chapel closed on Sundays? It’s kind of like a dump being closed on Thanksgiving.

Matt busted out his trusty Lonely Planet Italy guide (he seemed to be reading from this book all day, every time I looked at him he was telling us new and interesting fact about whatever part of Rome we were in.) and they decided to try and make a loop that included the Pantheon, Monumente Vittorio Emanuele II, the Roman Forum, Circo Massimo (a 2500 year old stadium that held 200,000 people, although now it kind of just looks like a big field with slopes on both sides), the Teatro di Marcello, a shitload of fountains, and we went inside of every single church we passed. I have been many places in the world, but I can’t recall a day when I have ever jammed in as much tourism into a single day as these guys did. I just felt like I was along for the ride. The tourism was a great day with my brother complete with an old Italian woman who served us our lunchtime pasta and cappuccino’s.

After about 10 hours of walking we stumbled around a corner into an Irish pub, so decided to go in for a few pre-dinner pints. When I went to order our second round, Matt decided he couldn’t hang and ordered a half-pint (it was kinda cute) and Dan just took off to the bathroom for 20 minutes. It may have been the second round talking, but we all decided that we wanted the best Italian dinner we could find (and in the process destroy any semblance of a budget) so I suggested this little Bistro I had been told was excellent, plus it was literally next door to my hostel.

We had wine, a plate of Italian meats for appetizer, a pasta course (I had fettuccini with shrimp, Matt had ravioli, and Dan had gnocchi with clams), then for dinner Matt had swordfish and Dan and I had veal topped with procettio ham and a white wine sauce. We even chased all that up with dessert of tiramisu and and a custard with strawberry sauce. Now I only get into these specific because this had to be for me, as well as Matt and Dan, one of the top 5 meals of our lives. I think Matt put it best when he said:

“Even if I got to Florence and Leyna (the girl he came to Italy to see) came out, kicked me in the balls, and said she hated me, the entire trip to Italy would be worth it for this piece of swordfish”

After our two hour dinner (which I am going to get sappy here and say, was the absolute best time I have had with my brother Matt in 3 or 4 years, we’ve had and have our differences) we decided to head to the market to pick up some wine and see if we could find a pair of Dr.Scholls gel inserts for Dans shoes, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one with sore feet. We couldn’t find any Dr Scholls so Dan wasn’t “Gellin”, but we did find the next best thing, red wine in juice boxes! This country is amazing!

We finished up the night at the hostel drinking our wine out of little boxes and watching the South Park movie, until Matt and Dan couldn’t handle it and had to head of to their hotel to go to bed around 11:30pm. I stayed up for another couple of hours talking to a pair of Americans and drinking cheap Italian beer that the hostel sold. This was a great day and I am extremely pleased that Matt and I got along so well. There was always that possibility that if the wrong subject (Jesus) was broached we may have had words, as we often seem do. The only bummer of the whole day was that the sky was grey and hazy and I didn’t get any pictures that I loved.