Rome: Wednesday, 9:00 AM

here's a huge difference between Florence and Rome. Where Florence is small, quaint, and clean, Rome is big, urban, and dirty. Florence is a lover: intimate and personal; Rome is a school teacher: distant and cold. Not that Rome isn't an amazing city. I've been here a mere half day and I've seen some wonderful sights: the Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, Piazza Nagone, St. Peter's.

I guess I have two problems with Rome. First, I'm here only for a day and a half, so there's just no time to absorb the city's personality. This lack of time also leads to the wham-bam-I've-seen-it-ma'am-now-what's-next? syndrome. In Florence, I met a fellow Canadian while checking out Michelangelo's David. For the previous half hour, I'd gazed at the David and tried to see it as a unique work of art. That is, I tried to avoid seeing the sculpture as an icon and, instead, tried to view it with fresh eyes. I struggled to put this viewpoint into words, but my writing skills weren't up to the challenge. I was going to express some of these ideas to my compatriot, but then she told me that she'd been in the Sistine Chapel that morning and was off to Venice that afternoon. The thought of keeping such a vile schedule repulsed me, so I had no interest in sharing my thoughts with her.

Now with so little time here in Rome and so much to see, I feel like I'm falling into the same trap. To avoid this, I'll restrict the sights I see and spend a little time in each one, reading about it and meditating on its grandeur.

My second problem with Rome is that I've known Florence; Florence is a friend of mine; Rome—you're no Florence. Florence is the city of my dreams, a lifelong goal now well met. Even if some of the things I saw didn't connect with me personally. it didn't matter; they were in Florence! On the other hand, I've never had more than a fleeting desire to see Rome. The only thing here that truly turns my crank is the Sistine Chapel. (In fact, as a write this, I'm standing in line for the Cappella Sistina. There is truly a massive number of pilgrims in this crusade. Far more, I think, then I ever saw lining up for the Uffizi—and that was a two-hour lineup! Oy! Still, it's pretty wild procession. I'm in among a large throng of Slavic-sounding folks and, behind me, Arabic-sounding types who are wearing red caps with "Liban" (Libya?) printed on them. In a nice touch, though, the Red Caps are entertaining us all with what I assume are folk songs from their country.) Other than that, the rest of Rome consists of "must-see" sights that I have no personal connection to whatsoever.

Rome: Wednesday, 10:30 AM

Uh, well, I thought that was the line for the Sistine Chapel. My problem was that I didn't do enough advance work. That is, I didn't figure out exactly where the Sistine Chapel was located in advance. Instead, I just arrived at Piazza San Pietro (pleased with myself for getting there early: 8:30; about the only thing I did know was that the Sistine Chapel opened at 8:45) and tried to figure things out from there.

I saw a huge lineup of people on the left side of the square, so I figured that must be where I had to go. To make sure, I asked a fellow dressed in some sort of religious garb (I called him "the padre" to myself from then on) if this was the line for the Cappella Sistina. He didn't seem too sure what I was asking at first, but he eventually said that, yes, this was the right line.

Boy, were we both wrong. In the end, it turned out to be a line for people entering Vatican City to hear the Pope's usual Wednesday sermon to the masses! I wasted a good hour in that line, but I had no time to mourn my misfortune. I tried in vain to find someone who spoke English to give me directions. Eventually, after wandering around a bit, I saw an obscure sign pointing me in the right direction and I finally found it after a fairly long walk. (My Fodor's guide to Rome was no help whatsoever; the entry on the Sistine Chapel had no directions on how to get there and the map that described Piazza San Pietro showed the Sistine Chapel as a little square just to the right of the piazza! Pathetic! This is surprising becuase the Foror's guide to Florence was excellent. Go figure.)

The Chapel itself was truly spectacular. Michelangelo's frescoes were so vivid and much more "3-D" in person. The crowd there, however, was immense, so it was hard to work up the appropriate level of piety. (The atmosphere wasn't helped by the noise level. The attendants would emit the occasional long-winded "Shhhh" which would quiet the crowd temporarily. If things were really getting out of hand, the official would underline his "Shhh" with a few hand claps that quieted the crowd even more.) I would definitely pay big bucks to get a half hour alone in that place. Now that would be a religious experience.

Florentine Notebook	Spic and Span

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