Cured at The Vatican?

Two items of good news:

1. You may notice by my punctuation so far that I have found the colon key and the question mark key. I would continue to pursue the apostrophe and hyphen but time is money here.

2. My face is back to normal. Three doses of the Italian version of Benadryl, Reactine, and a trip to The Vatican City, and my lip is no longer swollen.

I must say, I am relieved as my luck with doctors while travelling has not been the best and I was not looking forward to seeing one here. I am not saying that the Vatican visit healed me but it is a nice thought since things were not looking good this morning but are fine now.

As you could guess, today was Vatican day. I had been there before but this time was slightly different for me since I did not find myself as overwhelmed by it all as I was two years ago. Swang, Erin, Nick and Steph all went to the top of the dome in St. Peters Bascillica but I chose to hang out and spend some time reading and taking pictures, some being self portraits. Anyway, the rest of the gang of took an elevator, a lift if you will, and then from the end of the elevators accent, had to continue up the side of the Bascillica an addtional 250+ steps! In addition, they risked vertigo and some other symptom caused by climbing to that height. They all survived and got some great shots of Rome. Maybe I will check it out next time.

St. Peters Bascillica is an amazing structure. Swang and I talked about how brilliant the architects and builders were back when it was built. Seriously, we are so easily impressed by buildings today but those of Ancient Rome and other places are magnificent considering the advantages we have today.

We also checked out the Sistine Chapel. I could go on about its brilliance but you all know it is brilliant. Plus, why do that when I have a great story to tell about what happened in the bathroom of the Vatican Museums after we saw Michelangelos masterpiece?!? Dont worry, it is just funny but not gross. We all went to use the public restrooms, and though some of the facilities are quite dodgy over here, those in this building were very similar to those in the US. There are locking doors on the stalls but no toilet seats as we found out. Sandra found a stall right away but Erin and I had to check the doors to see if there any others were open. Red above the handle indicates locked and white indicates unlocked or unoccupied. Erin swings open a door showing "white" and unexpectedly we see is an older woman of probably 75 squatting above the toilet. In a matter of 2 seconds, we looked at each other kind of confused and disturbed as she said without missing a beat, "I am not quite done yet", in a British accent! Erin slammed the door shut and we got away and into unoccupied stalls as quickly as possible. I could hear Erin laughing through the walls and I was cracking up too. It was pretty crazy. It was as though the woman was expecting us. She was nonchalant about the whole thing, ready with an answer to our unasked question "Are you about done?" Well, we are positive we heard her lock the door immediately after Erin shut it and that begs our real question, "Why not lock it in the first place?" Good lord. I do not know how well this story will translate via written description meaning sans my great physical gestures to illustrate but hopefully it will be enjoyed.

On our way back to our hotel, Sandra noticed that we could actually see the Coliseum from our the street our hotel is on. Somehow this had gone unnoticed by all of us until this afternoon. Amazing what will get past you when you are so focused on other things. It was probably the first time we had even looked around our immediate area. On my walk here, to the cafe, I noticed a beautiful fountain that I must have walked by before on this otherwise somewhat ugly street. I am glad my mind was finally unoccupied enough to allow me to see that too.

Nada mucho mas (practicing for Spain) to tell at this time so i am signing off the blog scene for now. late dinner soon...just in time for most of you to have lunch.

Buona sera. (I think thats right.)