Like a-big-a-pizza pie (Italy Pt. 2)

That's-a-Romaaa

If you haven’t yet, you can read “Italy part 1” here.

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We’d left our house in Iowa around 3pm that Sunday. With the flight issues and shortened Venice stay, it didn't feel like we could relax long enough to exhale until around 4pm Wednesday, when we made it to our Airbnb in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome.

It’s natural to compare new experiences to what you’re familiar with, and not necessarily in terms of better and worse. It’s like only ever having Gala apples, and then discovering that Pink Lady apples have also existed all this time.

I noticed the cars are tinier in Italy, and there is no pissing contest to see who has the most monstrous pickup truck. (Coming from the midwest, it was refreshing to go 2 whole weeks without seeing an ad for a pickup truck bigger than my first NYC apartment.) Also, no one seems eager to bulldoze away beautiful countryside in order to make bigger roads and bigger houses. 

But Italy is not exempt from its own "bigger is better" hang ups. In fact, everything is probably so small in these old cities because the ancient ruling classes were so utterly obsessed with size.

The monuments, the art, the palaces and cathedrals – thankfully all so well-preserved – are living evidence of the country’s opulent history, and nowhere is this more prevalent than the Vatican.

I somehow messed something up in my Viator account, and am unable to leave the much deserved 5 star review for our skip-the-line Vatican tour, so I'm leaving it here:

"Carl was a magnificent tour guide. As an art history buff, you could tell how passionate he was and how much he enjoyed sharing this knowledge. He's also tall, so he's easy to find! He's been doing this for 16 years and had the whole tour down to a science. Even brought cold waters for us. He really made the tour for us. Gave us a tip to check out the lesser known Basilica San Clemente while we're here, which we did today and loved! We highly recommend this tour, with Carl if possible!"

My goodness these are time consuming (but very fun, and great practice).

Roma recap to be continued!