Zurich, Rome (part II)

----you've seen the photos and know where they are----

May 22: we stay home most of the day but we do go out for a walk behind my house because Roberto is starting to suffer from cabin fever, or what I’d like to call “homer-missing-the-cookout” syndrome (do any of you recall this? … characterized by a everything-is-is-happening-around-me-and-I-am-missing-it feeling.

May 24: we go to the Zurich Botanical gardens and to the Museum of medicine (hosted by the University of Zurich). It takes us a while (and a decent amount of walking) to find the museum, and once we’re there, we find it is empty and they actually have to turn on the lights for us (not very popular??). I just take a few minutes to stroll through a series of “instruments of torture” from the middle ages to present time. They have little engravings that show “how-to’s” from anything like pulling out a tooth, to pulling out a baby (not a nice picture). According to the old drawings, a cure for a lot of diseases was thought to be found by poking you in "unthinkable" places.. (not a nice picture either) I don’t like it all that much so I wait for the doctors outside (and I wondered why it was empty…)
We board the night train to Rome, where we play canasta and go to sleep.

May 25: We wake up in Rome, the Eternal City (I now think that by eternal, they mean “old”)
Our first stop (after dropping off our bags at the hotel) is the Colosseum. Its is spectacular and colossal, but I think it looks much bigger in pictures (maybe the camera adds 10 punds?). The sun is hard on our faces, and we are very thankful for all the little water fountains throughout the city. We cross the street from the Colosseum and enter the Forum. We take every chance we get to sit, rest and drink water. Man, it is hot! Walking through the forum feels stepping back in time… almost.
We keep walking until we reach the other end and into Capitoline Hill and the Capitoline Museum. After eating lunch somewhere nearby we are ready to tackle the Museum. We keep comparing the statues to characters from the Gladiator movie and wondering which one is Russel Crowe.
After that, we walk to the Trevi Fountain, where I toss 2 coins (tossing a coin is supposed to guarantee a return to the city; I tossed 2, just in case). Then we walk to the Spanish steps and we all remember this episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond” where they go to Italy and he says something like “why do they call it ‘Spanish” steps if they’re in Italy?”. I know, do you? (skip this if you don’t care: the steps are actually French, but the are called “Spanish” because of the Piazza de Spagna at the foot of the steps, which is called that because the Spanish embassy is there somewhere to the right of the steps, although it is the Spanish embassy to the Vatican, not to Italy)

After doing A LOT on our first day, we go meet our friend Kate (from IU, now residing in Rome). She takes us across the river to Trastevere for dinner. Sadly is the only time we step foot there, because we never found the time to come back later.

May 26: The next day, we literally RUN to Galleria Borguese. After leaving our bags at our friend’s house we were running a bit late for our appointment to go in to the Gallery. You have to make an appointment ahead of time and if you don’t show up, they sell your spot. We barely made it! The Borghese is a palace full of art, sculptures mainly, but also paintings.
We followed that with a visit to dead monks. We went to the Capuccin Crypts, where they have thousands of real human bones arranged “artistically” inside a crypts under a church (this was Robe’s pick). It was interesting, but small (no photos allowed, so no photos to share). We walked (I am starting to notice a pattern here) to the Pantheon, where we waited for like an hour to get in. Not because there was a line, but because there was a mass: the place still functions as a church! We finally got in, got some nice views of the dome and visited the tomb of Queen Marguerita and thanked her for naming my favorite pizza of the entire trip: mozzarella & tomato sauce. We did some walking around the area, and ended up at Piazza Navona. Sadly, the Four Rivers Fountain was being restored, so not much else to see there. We got some pizza for dinner and headed back to rest. The pizza ended up being more like “pizza sandwiches”, but still good

May 27: Today we realized that as the days progresses, our sightseeing time got smaller (we woke up later, returned home earlier…). It also did not help that we got on the wrong bus and lost like 2 hours. Well, it was the RIGHT bus, it was just going the wrong way, and if we had stayed on it, it would have eventually taken us to where we wanted to go (or so Roberto claimed, after failing to admit fault). So eventually we got to where we wanted to go: Palatine hill. This is like a compilation of palaces and gardens (in ruins) where supposedly Rome was founded. Its got a great view to Circus Maximus, although that is not more than an oval dirt track.
We walked from Palatine Hill to Circus Maximus, and imagined Ben Hur in a chariot race.
We visited Michelangelo’s Moses with horns at the St. Peter in Chains Catherdral , and then walked to the nearby Bocca della Verita , where I wanted to take a picture, but the line was so long and I was so hungry, that I just snapped a shot through the gates instead. That night we saw fireworks sitting on the balcony, it was a great end to a long day,

May 28: Vatican: Museum, sistine chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, Up the dome, St. Peter’s square. Tried to make it to Sta maria della vittoria to see Sta. Teresa in ecstasy. Almost missed the train, the boys RAN. Robe’s birthday, beers and mcDonalds

May 29: Back in zurich

May 30: Abril and Robe go back to Juarez, and we’re all alone again. Snif…