Planning a trip to Rome

I have never had the dream to go to Italy.

London?

Yes.

Western Europe?

Yes.

It may be because I am not Catholic that I have never had the dream to go to Italy, for I just didn’t put it in my head that I might want to go see the Vatican someday.

Not to say, I don’t like Italian food. I have gone to lots of Calgary Restaurants – Lina’s for food that rivals anything Italian you can find in New York – or so says John Gilcrest.

I have gone from the low of the Spaghetti House to the high of the Italian Restaurant in 10th Street and Kensington where President Bush dined when he was in Calgary.

And I have eaten pizza from every franchise, as well as from the neighbourhood pizza joint on Crowchild.

Having Wyona call from London and say that she found a cheap flight and that we could fly to Rome and stay in a hotel for 7 days, could make such a dream enter my head. The dream has also been put in Moiya’s head.

Since Wyona’s call, I have been out on the internet, looking for sites like “The 10 best things to do in Rome”. I don’t want to get there and not know what I should be looking at.

Wyona has been to Italy twice: once in the ‘80’s and once in the ‘90’s. Memorable to her was the side trip to Vesuvius, she says.

Tonia was in Rome this trip. She says that a day trip to the Vatican is a must – with at least seven miles of hallways.

Still, I don’t know much about Rome. I am pretty sure that when I was in Las Vegas, I saw a replica of the statue of David, and learned in Las Vegas that the original Michelangelo statue is in Italy. Last year I was at the V & A and saw another replica of David, this time accompanied by a joke from the museum curator. He said that since the time of Queen Victoria until just recently, whenever one of the queens has visited the room with the statue in it, something modest has been put on David’s front to protect the queen’s eyes from full exposure to the statue. The commoners, apparently, need no such protection.

Now a google search has revealed to that the original statue is in Florence and we are headed to Rome. So I am left empty – knowing nothing about what I am going to see in Rome.

Off to Chapters or Coles to get me a guide book.

Arta