The most apalling thing happened....it rained the whole weekend. I was dreaming of my trip to fabulous Rome since two months, dreaming of the beautiful Bernini statues in the sun, and guess what! The statues were still beautiful but no sun...
We reached Termini station and I hauled my heavy laptop and luggage out of the train to find that there was a deluge, and I had to walk through the deluge to our little hotel (Santa Chiara) behind the Pantheon. The hotel made up for it...we could sit and chat in the night on the steps of the Pantheon. Built as a Basilica to the , it ultimately became a tomb to the most famous Roman artists like Raphael, Carracci and Corelli.
I could only collect the images of Rome: cobbled streets much wider than you would expect...the statues at every corner, the bookshops and the restaurants advertising American breakfasts. We made our way to the churches to find the paintings of Caravaggio and Michelangelo culminating in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel. Oh and the cars: so tiny they fit everywhere. The Fiat Cinquecento (?) was ubiquitous.
On the way, when it rained we dashed into a bookshop: here we had coffee with Dante Alghieri looking down very sternly...
And the Vatican? We waited in the line for the museum and to my surprise it took only half an hour to get inside...no wonder because we were packed like sardines in the museum. A very nazi-ish looking guard yelled "Silenzio"!
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