Città-stato

And on the third day... we didn't rest. We went to the Vatican. It was better that we did not go on the Sunday, though I can only imagine what Sunday Mass would have felt like in Saint Peter's Basilica. I'm not sufficiently devout, however, to face a larger crowd than the one we encountered on Saturday late morning...

It was special to me. I did not expect it to move me to the extent it did - not only because of the physical beauty and sense of historical relevance. Nor merely for the art - which is outstanding.

The experience I had was metaphysical, transcendental. Probably brought about by the combination of art + history + religion + the fact that as we approached the chapel by the altar, the priest was about to start Communion.

I won't inflict it on you, since I don't proselytize and don't think it useful or wise to talk at length about something so intimate. I'm not, afterall, a writer.

I will post one photo because it is Art before anything else. Michelangelo's Pietà:

A much better photo can be found online.

Atrevida

In the afternoon we went to the Trevi fountain. Ah...I wanted to take off my jacket and put my legs in the water. If I wasn't so old I would have done it! Only children are allowed do certain things... it's very odd. What would have been so wrong about putting one's feet in the Trevi fountain water? No one drinks it! People throw coins in it and we all know how clean coins are...

Ok, I'll stop whingeing now and show you something sumptuous, how about? picturing my feet in the water...sporadic splashes on the most obnoxious tourists...stealing a coin from the fountain and throwing it back in pretending it's mine...standing in middle of fountain and screaming "Mamma! Sono tanto felice!" ... admiring the detail at the top and thinking Wilde thoughts..."We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."