Our visit to Venice, Florence, and Rome

Rome - Monday and Home

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 Monday was our last day, but as the flight wasn't until late afternoon, we didn't want to waste the day.We started extra-early, planning to tuck in a quick visit to the Vatican Museum before our ride to Leonardo Da Vinci airport.. We choked down breakfast (even skimpier than last time), checked out (putting our luggage in storage), and hit the subway for the four-stop ride.

Upon arrival, we found a line stretching from the Vatican entrance around the side of the building, down the street, and around the corner. We walked all the way to the other end, hoping to get in before our ride to the airport. But in actuality, we were on line only about 30 minutes. We spent the time speculating on the various reasons Christianity enjoys the popularity and endurance it does, and the sorts of thing s that could possibly change that in the future (one speculation: the arrival of a new, unquestionable Messiah on the scene, claiming the first one was some sort of terrible misunderstanding).

At about 9:30, we got in the door and began our exploration. The quick version: don't bother. Unless...
 

1) You show up in the dead of February at the antipode of the tourist season, an hour before opening, prepared to spend an absolute bare minimum of one full day...

-or-

2) You actually *enjoy* being herded around like cattle, poked, prodded, and shoved past any piece of art you stop long enough to try to enjoy.


Well, that may be an exaggeration.... but not by much!! For most of the time we were there, I felt like I was waiting for the stampede to begin. Even the Sistine chapel was packed nearly shoulder-to-shoulder, and we got to listen to recordings telling us  'shush' in several different languages.

But despite all that, I should probably turn off curmudgeon mode here for a while and say that the place *is* completely amazing – it's just such a shame that its popularity makes it so inaccessible. I'd gladly pay twice the price for a ticket to the midnight-to eight AM shift (especially the morning after arrival, to enjoy the jet lag), so as not to have to share the place with the unwashed masses.

Anyway, we had a train, car, and plane to catch, so off to the hotel and airport we went, for the long journey home. After a quick lunch at the airport (my last slice of pizza in Italy was deep-dish Chicago-style – bizarre), we did some last-minute shopping and boarded. When we got to our seats, we found an Italian couple who were trying to work out a way to sit together. Our clump of seats was three wide, and the woman was seated there, but not her husband. Eventually, the got a flight attendant to promise to find them something after we launched, but Judie and the woman struck up a conversation (the woman had no English, and Judie has enough Italian to start a conversation).By the time we were up and the woman's husband came back to the seat to get her, she'd decided she'd rather sit with Judie! What a troublemaker!

Looking Back...

For Judie, this was a trip she'd been wanting to make for a very, very, long time. For me, Italy was never on my must-see list. But overall, it was a great experience for the both of us, though not always for the same reasons. If I were to do it again, I think I'd skip the tour package and just book the hotels myself - the transfers would have been easy, and I don't know that the guided tours in each city added that much to the experience. And the language barrier wasn't severe, at least in part due to Judie's pidgin Italian Judie said she'd have preferred to flip the sequence Rome, then Florence, then Venice. As for me, there'd be something to be said for spending the entire week in Venice.

Parting words: I don't have any. You'll just have to go and see for yourself!

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