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Europe, March-April 1998 Rome, Italy So we went to Pisa... I think most people only stay in Pisa for the 30 minutes it takes to get to the tower, take the funny pictures of them holding up or pushing over the tower, walking around the grounds, and then getting the hell out of there. We pretty much did the same thing, only it took us a bit longer because Casey had to make the sign with a ball-point pen and it takes a lot of filling in to make the sign legible. We bought ourselves a great lunch at a local delicatessen and then headed to Rome. What can I say about Rome? Having been there before, we immediately sought lodging, which was marginally successful. OK, we were successful, but paid through the nose. On my previous trip, we spent the time on a friend-of-a-friend's floor, this time, we rented a room for $85 per night. We only stayed one night. We wandered over to the Forum and then over to the Coliseum and then to the Fountain, then the Steps, then some gelato and then the Pantheon. We pretty much covered the major tourist sights. At night we dined at my favorite little place at the Campo de Fiori. The next morning we trooped on over to see THE BIGGEST CHURCH IN THE WORLD. Of course, St. Peter's. When we were in Paris last, he thought Notre Dame was the biggest church in the world. From what I hear of St. Peter's, you can fit Notre Dame inside with room to spare. Of course, I decided that Casey (having been so enamored with Michaelangelo's work in Florence) should go see the Sistine chapel. I had read about the mural and retained most of my Christian school education, so I knew the stories depicted. Not so with Casey. First, I stood in line for two hours while he went over to St. Peter's. The line got seriously short when lots of people left because of a bomb threat. When that proved to be false, I found myself near the front of the line. Meanwhile Casey gets back with big eyes exclaiming, "Now THAT HAS GOT TO BE THE BIGGEST CHURCH IN THE WORLD!!!" I smiled and nodded my head in a supercilious fashion. So we finally get inside and although lots of people don't know this, you have to go through miles and miles of corridor and museum to get to the Chapel, squeeze in with a thousand other people, craning their necks to see the images 40 feet above you, all the while, trying to avoid the dog-pile that happens when someone raises something like a camera towards the ceiling and the guards all tackle him/her. So we get in there, and Casey says, "That's it? It's nice, I guess... I'm just not really interested in painting and I don't know the stories, so I don't really care." After all that... Yeesh. So we go back to the Basilica and climb the dome, as I knew we would, and then putter around town, killing time until our "overnight" train to Venice...
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