Doing my thing in Vatican City

well, the other day i escaped from the girl's again. that devil's brew really caught up with them this time, and all they wanted to do was sleep, so off I went in the wee hours of the morning to enjoy my day and see the sights. i managed to figure out rome's metro system and wandered over to vatican city. As i got into st. peter's square, i took some time to people watch and feed the pigeons. it was so relaxing to just be in the sun. you have to watch out for those pigeons though, they can be quite dangerous to someone my size. after a few close calls, i made the executive decision to move indoors to the basilica, where pigeons aren't allowed.

once inside I was immediately overcome by the need to repent. (yes, that is me on the left.) i thought long and hard about the things i've done, and the choices i've made. now, in all of my many years i haven't ever really "found" a religion, per se, but this whole catholic thing intrigued me. what a great religion. you can do what you want, then step into a little wooden box, pull a purple curtain closed, tell a priest what you've done wrong, and presto! you're forgiven. i thought i should give this a try. so in i went to confess my sins. afterwards, i sure did feel better. clean slate.

after confession, i went over to the vatican city post office. since they are their own sovereign nation, they have their own postal system. so i bought a post card to send to "Post Secret" to anonymously share one of my secrets with the world. as i gave the postcard a final push into its little yellow post box, i sighed deeply...and tried not to fall in myself. why do they put those so high up? you would think the city of God would have made more thoughtful allowances for people of all sizes. maybe i should have sent a postcard directly to the Pope saying so.



so a metro trip back to the center of rome led me to the colosseum. it was fantastic to see the tunnels where they used to lead the animals and gladiators around before bringing them up to the center of the arena for battle. there were some guys dressed up as gladiators outside of the colosseum who you could take your picture with...for 5 euros. i said, "5 euros! i'm a gnome! you should be paying me 5 euros to have your picture taken with me." they didn't really appreciate my comment and threatened me with their fake swords and suits of armor. seeing as how i am not as young as i used to be, i decided against a roman street fight and headed back to the hostel. next time though, i'll kick their fake gladiator butts...