When in Rome...

...do your darndest to get kicked out of Vatican City. Yet despite our kissing in St. Peter's Square, St. Peter's Basilica, and in the Sistine Chapel, Scooter and I only received stern words from the guards once - in the Sistine Chapel for simply looking at the pictures on our camera (not actually taking pictures). Oh well, I feel better for having given a symbolic "up yours" to the pope anyway. (Even if he wasn't actually in the Vatican City today...it's like rooting for your favorite player on tv...he/she can't hear you, but it still makes a difference, of course.) Speaking of Vatican City - it is, I must admit, quite stunning. Although a great deal of the materials responsible for its stunning nature were thieved from the neighboring ancient Roman ruins by the various Popes (almost all of the copper came from the Pantheon and much of the marble came from the Colosseum). I hereby suggest that the Catholic motto be changed to "beg, borrow, steal, and gloat."

Rome, in general, has been a mixed bag. Some of the sights are among the most fascinating in the world - the Colosseum and the Sistine Chapel are incomparably gorgeous. But the city of Rome itself is dirty (a great deal of the city has smelled like pee on any given day), trashed (a combination of the fact that Rome has close to 1 trash can per square mile and the general nature of droves of tourists to be evil beasties), and somewhat inhospitable to public transportation (it has only 2 metro lines, most of which don't go near the most beautiful parts of the city and the bus situation is splintered and confusing). Lastly, it's not a city I feel very safe in - there are only a handful of stoplights (for some reason, the city planners just trust all cars in Rome to learn how to yield gracefully) and Scooter and I observed a uniformed police officer notice an abandoned duffel bag placed near a bus stop, and then blissfully walk on by. Nice. Add that to the Vatican Museum x-ray tech, who was watching the people and not the bags, and well, it almost makes you want to warm up to the Department of Homeland Security's stupid Advisory System. Almost.

Scooter and I are catching the train to Venice in about an hour and a half. Only four more cities to go! (Venice, Vienna, Prague, Berlin).