Lyah and Margaret take on Italy, Spain, and France

19 May to 8 June, 2003

This page is graphic intensive - please be patient.  If it helps, you can whistle Vivaldi to yourself as you wait, and it will be just like being on hold.

ITALY

Rome, 19-22 May.

Home of Trattoria Alfredo, which I credit with saving my life, the annoying bracelet blokes at the Spanish steps, and Lyah's Pakistani boyfriend at the laundromat/internet cafe.

Ruins outside St. Mary and All Angels', near Stazione Termini in Rome.

Me, in the Palatine.

This was actually taken as an excuse for photographing my exquisite (and expensive) baci gelato, which was bought during a brief rainstorm on the way to the Coliseum, but turned out to be a lovely little photo of Lyah.

The Palatine.  Amazing.  You're just in this bowl of earth, surrounded on all sides by ruins.  No little plaques with explanations, a few tour guides but they're discreet, no modern exhibitions or re-creations, no handheld audio tours, nothing.  Just you and this archaelogical excavation, and the ghosts.

We did not intend to attend a papal audience.  We just decided on Wednesday to go check out the Vatican, and it turned out that the Pope holds audiences that day, and you can just walk in.  So there we were, two little heretics (one Jew, one Episcopalian), hanging with His Holiness.  The way it works is that a cardinal reads a greeting to the Pope in one language, and reads a list of all the groups from various places in the world that speak that language who are present (and they all cheer when they're called), and the Pope reads a blessing in that language, and everyone waves their "Peace" flags, and cheers.  They also cheer every time the Pope sneezes.  Lyah and I had a thoroughly rude and horrible explanation for that.  This is also the event at which we first developed the idea of a Vatican Theme Park (it's "Pope-eriffic!!").

Oh, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the uniforms of the guards.  Yummy.

Pieta.  As good in real life as they say it is.

ON TO SIENA