Great Big Things in Rome

Art, history, architecture, and the Vatican are some gargantuan reasons to visit Rome. The Colosseum is, you know, big. It took 70,000 slaves eight years to carry these here stones. Visiting the structure is fascinating, and it's also amusing to watch the tour guides and dudes dressed as gladiators trying to cajole tourists. And we saw couples doing wedding pictures outside of the structure. Really. A place where 500,000 people met gory deaths. 

Vatican City: I had so many questions. Why is it a country? Do they have a national anthem? How many people live there? Is it a democracy? Is it part of the EU? Jeremy patiently Wikipediaed all of my queries while we waited in line to see the fabulous works of art therein. Art that covered the ceilings and walls and made you feel like you were totally immersed colors and shapes and history.   

I mean, these are just the stairs.

After our necks could crane no longer at the Sistine Chapel, we jumped in the line for St. Peter's, the world's largest church in the world's smallest country. The line wouldn't probably have taken so long had everyone shared the same definition of a line and the same social agreement that one begins waiting in line at the end. It's an interesting cultural phenomenon how nonchalantly some people mosey about half way to the end of the line, figure that's close, and try to blend. I kept wishing Ali were there. She doesn't suffer line cutters or bird feeders. 

Walking into St. Peter's is pretty fabulous; it's so gigantic and sparkling and filled with amazing treasures. You really don't know where to look. And everything is so big, you forget the scale of things. This baldacchino, a sculpted canopy by Bernini, looks kind of like a four poster bed, but really, it's more than half as tall as the Niagra Falls. I got that stat from Bill Bryson. I love him. 

And there's so much outside: crazy pretty piazzas and fountains and buildings that get cuter as they age. Here we took a lovely stroll through the Foro Romano, the center of the Roman Republic filled with remains of triumphal arches, basilicas, the area the Senate sat to make Roman law. We were so struck by the density of all of these amazing sights too. Rome is like the Tokyo of cool things.

The city is so interesting and chaotic, especially if you're trying to cross a street or survive a taxi ride or ride the subway during a strike. It was a definite change from the safety, order, and tidiness we enjoy in Munich. 

Also, Constantine's foot. Quite large.