Albino & Gypsy: Papists and pasta in Rome

Buon giorno Rome ! We spent a great 4 days in Rome. Already better than London simply by being warmer, after this trip, Rome for me beats Paris and even Berlin as a cool city to spend a few days in. And finally, after all those photos and postcards I finally got to see what the Colosseum looks like on the inside!

One of our first efforts was to try and beat the crowds at the Vatican early on a Friday. As someone more used to the relative austerity of Presbyterianism, the Vatican seemed hopelessly luxurious. Gold leaf everywhere and outrageously famous paintings appearing on every second wall. It was weird to realise that paintings I've seen in books are not only here on the wall - but are actually painted straight onto it. Still oddly like a palace though ..

Outside the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, it was time to visit the enormous St Peters Basilica. After trips to some impressive temples last year, and a couple of pretty decent mosques, I'd been thinking that members of other religions might not be all that impressed by what Christianity had been building. But St Peters is the motherlode - over a football field long (and almost as wide in parts) with enormous marble columns, and Michelangelo's Pieta tucked into the top corner. That was the weirdest thing about churches in Rome - an embarrassing display of incredible statues almost jostling for position.

Shaun has urged me not to be misleading so I will clarify that the above 2 pictures are of other churches in Rome, not St Peters. Breaking out of the churches, there were other things going on in Rome. In particular, our first day coincided with a massive street march and protest for something in Italian which we think had something to do with schools. It was certainly the first street protest I'd ever seen with happy balloons. There was also time to terrorise some pedestrians on a segway - and to perfect donuts and slaloms around streetlights.