Sunday, August 8

Rome

An alarm clock wasn’t necessary this morning; the second hand smoke was so strong we could see it seeping from the walls and Shelman was spooning me for the third time that night. Nevertheless at 10:50 we got a call from the front desk telling us to get out. Like, thanks Bro, but you’re preachin’ to the choir. You don't have to tell us twice--thx.
After riding a rickety elevator (felt safer sleeping on the Venice streets) to the first floor, we walked outside and were in Rome. Incredible.
On the subway to the Vatican, a kid was killing it on the accordion, playing Somewhere Over the Rainbow—Italian rendition (I didn’t know it was possible to rock an instrument from 1822 so hard). We saw the St. Peter’s square, St. Peter's Basilica, the Pieta, and a bunch of papal tombs (including the tomb of Pope John Paul II). From there we walked to the Spanish Steps, snapped a few pics, and decided to head out for some more authentic Italian pizza (the pizza in Venice was, how you say, dank). We sat down and ordered two slices each. Now, I’m more of an eater than a cooker so correct me if I’m wrong, but last time I checked this was not two slices:


Fig 1: Whatever this is, it's NOT only two slices of pizza.

What this is here is over 5 pounds of pizza. We know this because they charge by the kilogram and what we thought would be a small snack ended up costing over $20 each. Just ridiculous. Back when I was working at the Birchwood Snack Bar, if somebody ordered a bottle of water and I came out with a 5-gallon water cooler, I'd get punched in the tooth then get fired. No respect. I just don't know where this lady gets off serving slices of pizza that are more than a pound each. At any rate, you can be sure that Shelman and I have had our fill of pizza for a while.
After our meal we headed for our hotel (a nice one, for a change) to freshen up and wash our clothes. The hotel was great-—nice staff, clean rooms, and blizzard cold A/C. The only confusing part was the bathroom.


Fig 2: Bad-flushing toilet on left.

The second toilet took like 15 flushes to flush down number 2’s, and when Max and I were using them at the same time we were looking each other in the eyes. Anyways…

Now Sunday night isn’t the biggest night in the holiest city in the world, but Shelman and I still had a great time tearing up the pong table and absolutely lighting up the dance floor. At one point, Max dropped a move so hard I swear even the pope felt it, funny hat and all. We also met this kid, Harry, who dished out handshakes WAY too much. Like, once he gave me a handshake for giving him such a great handshake. Hilarious, but the dude needed to relax. We also met two Irish girls with funny accents and a bunch of other goofs n smokes.
Anyways, the night came to a close and after picking up our sweet free t-shirts (what’s better than a free t-shirt?) we stopped at McDonalds (classic Wieser) for some munch. There, like with the pizza, I was clowned on again. Now there’s no way of knowing for sure, but I’m almost certain I ordered two hamburgers. What I ended up with was a piece of cheese between two burger buns. After looking everywhere for my patty (could it have fallen out in the bag?) I devoured my cheese-and-bun-sandwich and Max and I headed home.

Pictures: Us on the Spanish Steps, Sheltod climbing around at the Vatican, The Pieta, Inside St. Peter's Basilica (the place is huge, this is just a corner of it)