Roma, oh Roma

Following popular demand and to set the record straight on a few matters – no Roy, it’s not me who has been rambling on (yet) – I thought it was time to reintroduce myself to Word. And what better place than Rome, where the word is The Word? See what I did there? No? 

So we’ve been on the road for about 6 weeks so far. In that time we have learnt the following: New Zealand is beautiful. Luxembourg is awesome! There’s nothing like real Italian mozzarella and prosciutto. Amsterdam is all fun. I think… Jesus loves me. (And the 250,000 other people who pay to see him daily at the Vatican).  Also, Andrew loves beer. I mean LOVES beer. Possibly even more than Jesus loves me. It’s a tight competition but I think the Queensland peach is winning. He certainly prays consistently to those beer gods.

We’ve found ourselves surrounded by fireflies whilst overlooking the med. We’ve been serenaded by goat bells whilst camping in the Swiss Alps. We’ve even been accosted by men in Lederhosen – mainly me actually – whilst in Zurich. These are interesting times, Pip. Except for the knitting times, times between me and electrical items going severely wrong and those times when stupid Italian motorway bastards fine us for being a bit touristy. Grrrr. 

Anyway, on with Rome. As someone mentioned after 11 hours of hopping round the holy city “Jeez, there’re a lot of churches here”. An apropos statement I think which possibly didn’t necessitate the guffaws that ensued. Needless to say we have done the Vatican museums with Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel – “No Photo. Noooo Photo!” – see the photos below. It was pretty cool although Andrew may well have had his lifetime rationing of religious iconography by that point. Perfect time to bring on St Peter’s Basilica. Now that was cool. And not just because Jesus loves us. Maybe cool is the wrong word. Mind-blowingly gaudy? Extravagant to the extreme? Hmm, getting close. We decided to race up to the top of the cupola for the most crazy views over Rome. There is a lift up but as we’re “travelers”, we saved those extra 2euros and hiked up the steps. All 551 of them. That’s a lot. My calves have started to recover after a couple of beers but my word, what a view!

We also popped into Leonardo Da Vinci’s museum which has life sized replicas of a load of his inventions. He liked cogs. A lot. But cogs are cool. Especially when they make bicycles and tanks and helicopters and worm screws and stuff. Yeah, he was a busy chappie. And in appreciating his work, we had to eat plenty of pasta and pizza and gelato and now we are both about 5kg heavier . All thanks to LDV. What a guy.

So, to sum it up, Roma was awesome. I’m sure Andrew can fill you in on the other bits but this is enough homework from me for a while (yippee!). Pizza and beer, here I come! Ciao bella…

 The creation in the Sistine Chapel. Small room, big crowd.

 They don't do things by half at the Vatican. BIGGEST marble bathtub, EVER! Awesome.

 Modern day Centurions outside the Colosseum. Nice flipflops.

 Me doing some praising at St Peter's. Oh yeah, I saw-er the light.

 Andrew completely peaking out at the top of St Peter's dome. Fair enough, there were a lot of under deodorized Italians up there (and it was a bit high up)

 Seamless.