Do As the Romans Do

What are the Romans actually known for 'doing'? Aside from barbaric gladiators, power-thirsty rulers, and a politically-hungry government known for conquering half of Europe? I mean I know they have a lot of checked-off items on their long list on their "Personal Goals & Achievements", but I guess I just do not understand the saying: When in Rome, do as the Romans do. I'm sorry but my two days in Rome, I was unable to do any 'Roman' things. I pictured the gladiators below the stage of the colosseum awaiting what could be their last battle, the prisoners locked up in the cells of the Roman Forum, the crowds entering the Pantheon for service, and masses of people in the Vatican City; but I didn't physically do any of these things. I, however, did Rome in the very 'touristy' way following our two group leaders through lines of people. They don't make things particularly easy in Rome. For example, you can't just go see the Sistine Chapel. You have to go through the entire museum, wrap around each corner, shuffle through each room leading up to the infamous ceiling you break your neck to admire. The Vatican Museum could probably fit the entire state of Rhode Island in it, and just the entire building covered in ancient works of art. They say that you need six days to at least step foot in each store of the Mall of America, well I would say you would need at least six months to glance at every piece in the Vatican Museum for no more than ten seconds. And we had three hours. So you can imagine our disappointment while being rushed through these rooms with sculptures done by Donatello and pieces done by Raphael, without so much as a picture.

Overall, Vatican city was very impressive. We opted to not wait in the four-hour line to enter St. Peters Basilica. I'll just have to go back someday. And I apparently will since I threw my coin over my shoulder into the Trevi Fountain. Romans say that if you throw your coin correctly than this signifies your return to Rome someday, just like rubbing the pigs nose in Florence. I threw in a couple coins to ensure I got the best picture, so it looks like I will be returning to Rome a couple of times!

Since we only had two days, which is not nearly enough time to do Rome.. we hit up the major tourist attractions. We kept picturing everything out of the Lizzie McGuire Movie.. but we decided that she didn't have her concert in the actual Colosseum. Vatican, check. Colosseum, check. Trevi, check. Spanish.. still had to get to the Spanish steps and had less than 3 hours. After realizing we had been looking for the only attraction on our map that was listed in spanish (I had figured was a good place to start), we were corrected by one of the Presidents guards that we were in fact going opposite direction of the Spanish steps. I'm not sure what gave us away.. maybe being 106% American tourists idiotically assuming the Spanish embassy was where the Spanish steps were?! So thanks to this very generous guard, he led us to the steps which were jam-packed with people.

Oh and did I mention that there were strikes happening?! Really funny actually, because even though Italians are nonchalant about the essence of time they happen to be very organized in some respects. Such as riots and strikes. Protests have a very strict schedule and this instance was 2 in the afternoon to 6 in the evening. Hundreds of thousands of people marching the streets, and they were not as friendly as the one singing, flag waving one Florence I got caught in. Streets were being blockaded by swarms of police and swat in their gas masks with their shields. They unfortunately did not stop at their deadline and the riots with the tear gas and bombs continued into the night.. kind of put a damper on our evening plans. We got to see some of the destruction in the morning. TONS of graffiti on almost every reachable surface, but I of course had no idea what any of it meant because it was in Italian. I'm assuming something regarding the Italian government?? But I just found out the other day from my great Guatemalan friend that there is a list of schedule days for strikes. As in they have an organized calendar with times too! Maybe they are trying to make a statement and show the Italian government how timed schedules actually work- the bus system could definitely learn a thing or two.