Rome - humid, hot, history

It takes a while to load up our
double-decker bus

 I must confess yesterday I was feeling some sympathy for our old discarded stove.  It was a pretty good appliance most of the time.  Special occasions were the only problem. Under stress for the oven to keep up with cooking large holiday dinners it would overheat and proclaim F1 on the electronic read-out. There was nothing to be done except to let it cool down or think of another way to cook the food.



St Paul's - beautiful setting for a bathroom break
 

 
 
 
 





After a whole day of listening to the drone of the tour leader explaining the general overview of a drive through the centre of Rome, the gruesome history of the Coliseum and the extravagant wonders of the Vatican, I had definitely met information saturation. A sound system that kept crackling on and off didn't help.





Our feet were feeling the pain - we did over 20,000 steps according to Ed. I did enjoy the history and how can you not marvel at the art and architecture? But being herded as one of the thousands of people does degrade the experience for me. Oh no - I see fingers being lifted all over the bus. (This is our sign for no grumbling.)




Coliseum



Balcony from which the Pope addresses
 the masses in St. Peter's Square

The last time I was in Rome was in summer 1970 with three girlfriends in a pan-Europe trip in a Volkswagen camper. We parked the van and took public transit around Rome.  We found getting from one sight to another was exhausting and required excessive amounts of gelato so our bus this time is a blessing.





St. Peter's

Today's interesting fact: no church can be built that is bigger than St Peter's Cathedral - there were patterns on the floor that demonstrate how other famous cathedrals that are smaller and would fit inside St. Peter's.

Baccus - Laurie's favourite of all the statues
 I like him because his eyes are intact.



The Pieta - Isobel's favourite







We can still sing even after eight hours of sight-seeing!