This is my sweet suite from Rome. The others were jealous. The bathroom was huge. It was divine. I didn't brag about it openly, though. :) I figure it only makes up for being on the elevator lobby when in Venice. Boo.
That night I took a bus ride of Rome at night. Perhaps a walking tour would've been better for my photos. I know that Tom's photos of the night are much more interesting. Below is the Vatican. They keep their Christmas stuff up til early February. So I guess Christmas wasn't over yet. Win.
That night we went to a ridiculous dinner and show. People sang in Italian regularly while we drank wine. Very enjoyable. Especially the wine part. Then I got back to the hotel and shared a drink with Trudy and Jon. Probably should've stopped at that point. Around midnight, I returned to my suite exhausted but felt it was necessary to really use my luxurious tub. So I was lucky that Johnny had set a wake up call for the morning. Or I would've missed... the Vatican.
Above is the second coolest part of the Vatican - some sort of world-like ball that was gifted to JPII (henceforth to be called "good Pope").
The first coolest part of the Vatican is below. No. It's not the Pieta. Or the Sistine chapel. Or even the completely legitimate "hall of maps." It's Good Pope's body. That's right, folks. I was this close to Polish holiness. And I've seen Lech Walesa live. So I just need to figure out where they're burying Wislawa Szymborska (RIP), and I'll have completed the Polish trifecta. So I just need to figure out where they buried her.
They're really big about keeping dead bodies in the church. Below is some other Pope.
After the tour of the Vatican, I had lunch with Trudy and Jon. Then I retreated to my room. Outside snowflakes were coming down in giant slushy snowballs. It was miserable. My boots evidently were no longer waterproofed, either. I figured, at that point, that I'd seen most of Rome. The Spanish steps and the Trevi fountain were must dos that were going to have to remain undone for the time being.
The next morning, I headed to an outdoors tour of the forum and the Colosseum. Both were closed for liability reasons because the ground was so wet. But it was awesome to see these things in a way so few people, if anyone, ever had.
Johnny took a photo with me before I ran off to catch my flight. That was a miserable adventure in and of itself. The train to take me to the airport was supposed to leave every 20 minutes or so. It left after 90 minutes. I checked into my flight on time, but they were super low on other security people at the airport, so there's no way I would've made my flight. However! My flight was late. So I managed to get on it in the first place. Then, arriving in Frankfurt for my connection, I was told that a gate agent would see me when we got off the plane. I have no doubt that I would've been driven to my connecting flight had we not had some minor ground delays (some jerk parked his plane in our way and we had to wait for him to move it). Alas, I was directed to the rudest customer service people who just talked to themselves in German without giving me any notice as to what was going on or any options about anything. Alas, I was stuck in the Frankfurt airport AGAIN for another 5 hours. I officially hate Germany. It has not done me any favors. When I finished talking with the customer service people, it was right as my flight would've begun taking off. I still think I could've made it. I would've picked up my luggage the next day as I headed to... SUNNY Spain.
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