Rome, Italy / Noah Bleicher / The Journey / will the real philanthopist please stand up?

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will the real philanthopist please stand up?

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Rome, Italy
41° 54' N 12° 29' E
May 04, 2006 19:05
Distance 1054km

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will the real philanthopist please stand up?

Text written in: English

ah, rome. this city is beautiful. i expected many things and have found plenty to meet with expectations. for example, ive found elaborate works of art gracing almost every street, crowded side alleys filled with increasingly angry motorists shouting and blaring their horns, sweltering heat completely drying out your mouth and leaving you struggling to reach the overpriced water kiosk, and too many tourist attractions/traps to count. ive also found my dad waiting in a dimly lit, but lit being the key word, alley waiting for me as i approached on foot against mother's orders. so the past 24 hours have been fun.

i left greece yesterday afternoon after eating enough gyros to tide me over for the next 4 years. i like to think that when i told my gyro guy that it was my last one, he understood and made it extra special. it sure tasted great and had a lot of grease, so im sure he made a good one for me. when i landed in rome, it was night. i took a lengthy train into the heart of the city and walked out looking very much like a lost little puppy (bleary eyed, unsure which direction to go, doing the dual backpack thing (big pack on back, small pack acting like a pregnancy suit)). with the name of the hotel my dad was staying at, i had researched, found, and drawn directions for how to get there from the train station i was at. but also, i had been advised by parental units that the hour of my arrival would be late, the lighting in the city dark, and the safety of walking a fair distance low and thus, a taxi ride was advised. so, considering their history of sufficient if not beneficial advise over the years, i figured listening to them was worth a shot. but when i approached a taxi driver and asked to be taken to the hotel, he lied to me and offered me an outrageous price. i found the exchange quite humerous, so ill give an account of what happened:

Me: Hello, i would like to go to Via Collina.
Taxista: Oh, Via Collina, that is a very far. 30 euros.
Me producing my hand drawn map: no its not, look.
and as miraculously as it was instantaneous, my understanding of italian became perfect.
Taxista: Ay! You bastard! you made a mapa! Hey Fredo, look at this assahola, he a has a mapa. What a jerk! Ok, 20 euros.
Me: no, that is too much.
Taxista: ok, a how much you wanna pay?
Me: five euros.
Taxista flaps both hands at me and turns away: eh, this kid thinks im driving him a kilometer for 5 euro, what an idiota. fredo, lets go get a pizza.

i thanked them for being so nice and walked in the direction i thought was the right one. if one thing that exploring the world has done for me, its given me a good, nay, the best sense of the direction of all beings in the known world. i was walking in the right direction and better yet, i was recognizing landmarks from my perfectly-drawn-to-scale napkin map. after many twists and turns and a few avoisions of dangerous objects ala frogger, i made it to Via Collina. i was about to look for address numbers but stopped when i spotted a very familiar spot on the top of my father's hairless head. it was great to see that he had arrived safely and even better that he had taken the time to come meet me on the street. we went for a late dinner and caught up, made some prelimenary plans for the coming weeks, and then were soothed into sleep by shouting patrons of the downstairs restaurant.

this morning we woke up and mapped out our day over croissants and yogurt. we were to become serious tourists and hit up as many landmarks as was possible in one day. we took a bus over to the Vatican (figuring that thursday was going to be a lighter crowd than friday) and found that our prediction looked to be wrong. but after consulting with an information lady, we found out that every single day, holidays moreso, is the same. what she meant was that the line we were seeing--this km long, slowly moving mass of camera toting, sailing cap wearing, gawking group of tourists--was present every single day, all day long. and this was only to get into St. Peter's Bassilica. she told us that to see the Sistene Chapel, we had to go into the Vatican Museum, located around the corner, which had a line equal in description and length but the difference was, that one moved slower. but, there was a little known secret (ooh, i like these). there was an entrance to the bassilica from the chapel so that after we made it through that labrynth, we wouldnt have to come back out to wait in the second line. thanks, info lady.

so we endured the heat, although some of the time we were in the shade, and made it through the line. but we did get to see lots of tour groups led by tour guides sporting crazy haired troll doll antennae so that they bumbling tourists behind them holding small speakers to their ears could follow, and we saw street vendors offering high quality purses, sunglasses, and stress balls quickly packing up en masse when two policemen strolled through the scene, plus we found many good samiritans patiently waiting their turn in a line that we couldnt see (or maybe we just werent privaledged enough to be in it) but nonetheless moved much faster than ours because it was on the outer edge of the main line. but it did end up going to the same place, i discovered that when i saw these nice people up ahead of me. when we finally made it into the museum, it was like that feeling when youve been waiting in the roller coaster line for an hour and then you get to a place where you think youre about to get in your seat but instead you still have about 20 minutes of waiting in line to go. then we went through ticket counters, more lines, ticket turnstiles like subway entrances where many people messed it up and had to be assisted by the guy whose sole job it is to stand there and help people when they mess it up, then up a crowded escalator to a lobby packed with confused looking visitors, and then you follow a sign that points to the Sistene Chapel (really the only reason you paid 12 euro in the first place) and then youre finally into the museum. but youre still so far away from what you came to see. the place is huge and filled with countless priceless sculptures and paintings. there are also elaborately decorated hallways, sittings rooms, ballrooms, and you name it rooms. every time you think youre getting to the Sistene Chapel, youre not even close. we walked through so many rooms i lost count and in each place, actually in each free piece of space, there is someone standing, photographing, or slowly, slowly walking. i think its called abling. the point is, this place is packed and the experience is much worse for it. long story short, by the time you get to the SC, youre so tired that the thought of standing around while craning your neck upwards for a long time in a room more packed and turbulent than a Metallica concert in the House of Blues is so painful, you almost miss the absolute beauty and detail of the scene. in fact, all the rooms leading up to the chapel are magnificent as well. to think about the amount of time it took (not to mention the amout of money in commissioning the work) to contemplate, design, then paint and sculpt the works is mind boggling. it really was amazing to look at. and of course, we were too tired to figure out how to get to the Bassilica so we missed the secret pasageway. it turns out that the passage is reserved for group tours so you have to sneak your way into a group and just walk over with them. now YOU know. dont tell anybody.

we ate lunch nearby enjoying the shade and a cool breeze. since you asked, i had spaghetti carbonara. it was heavy, and not as good as my mom's.

after that i wanted to at least take pictures of St. Peter's square and the Bassilica in the background. but when we got there, the line wasnt so bad so we decided to soldier through it. we opted not to hike to the top of the dome and instead went through the papal tombs which was creepy. it was a well lit maze of chambers consisting of raised tombs each with the effigy of a deceased pope on it. all were either well chisled marble or cast brozne. many people were shoving and fighting to get to John Paul's area. after the disturbing walk through the tombs, we went into the Bassilica. never have i seen a gaudier place in my life--and ive been to Versailles. im sorry if the following offends any of the Catholics reading this, or anyone else for that matter, but i must express my thoughts. the only thing i could think of while walking through the massive building was that the Church spent all this money and energy to create this place, when there was and still is so much suffering and hunger existing throughout the world that it proudly asserts that it cares for. the Bassilica was free to enter, but there was a charge for the museum and for going up to the dome. i estimate that every day, at minimum, 50,000 people come through these sites. if those people only go to see the Sistene Chapel, that is 600,000 Euros a day! if the Church took one week's entry fees and used it to feed hungry, homeless, and other needy causes, it could do a substantial amount to ending many of the worlds problems. instead they erect idols to Popes, build 60m tall marble hoopahs (im sorry, i dont know what you call them in churches), and still pass around collection plates at every service. i find it highly disturbing that this religion, and for that matter, many religions, my own included, profit off of the spiritual desires of millions of people. its a money making machine as it always has been. and today i saw its more profitable cow. to think of the things that that amount of money could provide...

we also saw the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and the Tribute to Vittorio Emanuele II building. all were accompanied with the standard flock of tourists and knick-knack (paddy whack give a dog a bone) vendors. dad and i finished the day with a cool drink and some down time to rest our weary legs. tomorrow will be more of the same as Rome has way too much to see in a short period of time. but so does italy, and we must be getting along. next is Pompeii, Florence, Venice, then Spain. ciao.