Yeah, I'm a trooper...like Alex Trebek

Hello and goodbye from Rome. I've had an absolutely awesome 1.5 days here, exploring Rome on the solo. After we got to her adorable little place yesterday, Liza and I stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, and then she went off to work (for the UN's Food & Agriculture Organization), and I set off to see some shit. EOB had told me many a time in Spain that she dominated Rome. I figured, if that skank can do it, so can I.

Didn't start off that easy. My usual spot-on navigation skills were put to the test again, and again they let me down...at first. I think I took the whole "oh, I'm going for a stroll in Rome" mentality a bit too far. After getting completely turned around, I corrected my course, and made a nice big loop and saw Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Pantheon again (BECAUSE ITS AWESOME), Emmanuele Monument, Spanish Steps, Roman Forum, and the Colosseum...all within 4 hours. It's much easier to do that when you've seen them all before, and therefor don't need to go inside.

Sightseeing complete, and Rome officially dominated, I met Liza at her office and we took the long way home. We started with a hike up to Park de Arancia (Park of Oranges), where we got a fantastic view of the city. She had mentioned going to "the key hole" and so as we walked away from the park, I asked, "why do they call it the key hole?" Turns out that wasn't it...the key hole was a few blocks over, and I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about until we got to a random house, with a random door, and she said, "Okay, look in." I put my eye up to the key hole (obvi) and there it is...perfectly framed by a row of hedges, the dome of St. Peters. It was awesome. I'm told her previous visitors were not impressed, and to them I say "YOU SUCK."

We wandered up and around to Trastevere, which she lives above on a hill, and had a couple glasses of prosecco, and a delicious (obvi again) dinner...I got the gnocchi, which still wasn't as good as Verona (though we're starting to wonder if that gnocchi was really that good, or if we loved it because it was our first). Then walked up (another) giant hill for a magnificent view of Rome, where I planked myself and iced myself. 30 = Maturity. Since we'd been up since 3 a.m., we grabbed a bottle of wine and headed home where I passed out almost immediately.

Today, I slept in a bit, and had only one priority: returning to St. Peters Basilica. I got (again) a bit turned around, and decided to do the outside of Sant Angelo first, and find my way from there. I took some pics, and then saw a cathedral down the road. Whenever you look at the Roman skyline, there is a church near St. Peters that looks aaaaalmost as big, and on Thursday Liza had said that people always ask her what it is and she never knows. I thought, "Oh, that's probably it, so I can go figure out what it is and then I can orient myself from there....turns out it was St. Peters. Whoops

When we were here last time, that was my favorite thing that we saw. Here again, and it wins again. Seeing St. Peters completely blows you away, whether from the inside or the outside. Comparing it with Sagrada Familia in Barcelona (which is still being constructed with all of the advantages of modern construction), only confirms what I've been thinking to myself for the last two days: Rome, the Eternal City, is the best city in the world. It is. If you disagree, I feel sorry for you. If you've never been, I feel sorry for you. I got a bit emotional, I'll admit, thinking about how lucky I am to be able to come here, and have friends that will come with me (or better yet, live here!) to boot. I ended my afternoon with lunch on Campo di Fiori, where I celebrated my conquering of Roma with a half liter of wine to myself, before heading back to base camp. We're about to depart for Tuscany, so really, all of the good parts of this trip are over...