The Pantheon is incredibly well preserved, despite being the oldest “important” building in Rome. It has been converted to a church and is still in use today. It also houses a couple of tombs of Italian Kings, such as Umberto I:

The Colosseum was… The Colosseum.  I don’t need to tell you how awesome it was, you already know that.  So here’s some pictures:

When we approached it from the outside, I thought “Hmm…I thought it would be bigger.”  Then we went inside (and skipped the 40-mile long line by taking a group tour - why doesn’t everybody do that?).  It’s really big on the inside.

One of the highlights of our trip was getting to see Pope Benedict during his New Years Day benediction. We didn’t know when he was going to be making his speech, and happened to arrive about 10 minutes before it started. The picture is a little fuzzy because of how far away we were. See that ring he’s wearing? That’s how big his head was from where we were standing. Let’s hear it for zoom lenses.

As expected, St. Peter’s Basilica was incredible. The utmost extreme in size, ornateness, and dedication to God.

It saddens me that they stripped the marble from the Colosseum to build it, but it is truly a masterpiece like I’ve never seen before.

You can really tell the difference between the popes that were quite full of themselves and demanded richly ornate tombs with stone carvings of their likenesses, and the popes that preferred a quieter, more humble existence in life and in death. Pope John Paul II, pictured above, is an example of the latter.

This is a tomb dedicated to the Apostle Peter. It doesn’t hold his bones, but does have some of his relics. Peter was evidently the first Pope, according to the engraved list of popes in St. Peter’s Basilica. I wonder if he knew that.

We saw the Sistine Chapel. Eventually. A word of warning to anyone trying to see the Sistine Chapel via the Vatican Museum: When you come across the myriad of signs that say “Sistine Chapel, this way” continue in the opposite direction of that indicated on the sign. More often than not, a sign directing you “toward” the Sistine Chapel will lead you back to the beginning of the tour you have already taken. It’s like making your way through a labyrinth planned by somebody with a sick sense of humor. A pretty labyrinth nonetheless, but it can be quite frustrating when you are repeatedly taken back to the starting point.

After going through the labyrinth, however, we were a little confused as to why the Sistine Chapel gets all the glory. I mean, yes - it’s an incredible masterpiece. But so is everything else. Every room is covered floor to ceiling in the same incredible painted artwork as the Chapel. Maybe they weren’t done by Michaelangelo, but they are no less beautiful. For instance:

Sistine Chapel:

Not the Sistine Chapel:

Again, not the Sistine Chapel:

Truthfully, when you get to the Sistine Chapel, you have just spent an hour (not kidding) walking through room after room after room of the same kind of artwork as you see in the SC. So when you finally get there, it’s somewhat anticlimactic.

Regardless, you can’t leave St. Peter’s Basilica or the Vatican Museum without being in total awe at the level of dedication to God that is displayed in the construction of the building, down to every last detail. It’s the idea that God deserves the best and beyond the best that we humans can produce, on every level and barring no sacrifice. It’s a display of faith and adoration that simply doesn’t seem to exist today in our “personalize, trivialize and break everything down so we can grasp it” mentality.

Oh, and I like horses.

The Tiber River is apparently a pretty popular place for the homeless to set up camps. Every homeless person has dogs. Two dogs.

The begging culture in Italy is a phenomenon to me. It’s like a career - I wouldn’t be surprised if you could major in Destitution at the universities. You can qualify to be a beggar for any and all maladies, regardless of their actual affect on your ability to obtain a job. Have children? Ask for money. Or better yet, send them out to ask for money. Missing a leg? Don’t get an office job, ask for money. Have a canker sore or a cold? Live off the generosity of others.

I have a sneaking suspicion that it actually pays better than a real job anyway.

They’re especially popular outside the Vatican, but also hang out at outdoor restaurants, making their way around to all of the patrons. And they expect you to give them money. It’s like a societal standard or something, I assume arising out of the Catholic background of the area. They get very demanding with their sob stories and don’t take no for an answer. If you give them anything, it’s not uncommon for them to ask for more. The phrase “beggars can’t be choosy” doesn’t seem to apply here.

A not-so-distant cousin of begging is the useless services industry, in which people perform in some way for donations. A very popular version of this is the “Human Statues” that you see in San Francisco a lot - people dressed up like really cheesy looking statues and want you to give them money for…standing still…

Most of them are pretty unimpressive, but we did see one worth watching. This guy was outside the Castel Sant’ Angelo and looked so much like a real statue that he had to keep moving so people would know it was an act.

There are also the window-washers and the musicians. The musicians mostly hang out at the restaurants and are usually pretty good. They are VERY territorial though. There was a ukulele player at one restaurant we were in. Then a violinist came up and started playing at the same restaurant. The ukulele player got VERY ANGRY at this obvious intrusion. He gave the guy a few “warning” strums on his ukulele, but the guy kept playing. So Mr. Ukulele put up his instrument and literally chased Mr. Violin away, yelling at him that this was his turf and he’d better not ever come back.

It was entertaining for the rest of us.

Pickpocketing is also pretty popular. We saw a couple come right up behind a lady with a backpack and start unzipping it while she was walking toward St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. I was considering getting a backpack from the street vendors to use as a camera bag, but changed my mind after that.

I love the street vendors. I wish we had them here. The bags were my favorite - they had a huge assortment and every one of them was beautiful. And labeled with Gucci, Fendi, and other brand names. I brought home a great “Gucci” bag (the black one in the middle of the picture). I would have brought home 10 more if I’d had the money.

Notice the green one above it is the same bag without the Gucci label. I love street vendors. The purse men all seem to work for the same vendor. They’re all Senegalese I think, and have pretty much the same stock. I’ve heard that they are there illegally to make money and send it back home, and I’ve also heard that they’re there semi-legally, as part of an indentured servanthood to the “organization” that sponsored their immigration to Italy.

Either way, they have pretty bags.  And they’re willing to bargain for your euro.