Day 10 Rome & Vatican City

It looks like I still have some time for net access, so here's a quick summary of today...

Our first stop was the Coliseum, where we met our local tour guide for the day. We were able to go inside the arena and take photos, but the best views were of course from the top...of the first floor. My god the stairs were absolutely killer, each and every step being slippery and steep. It's easy to see how the Ancient Romans could have used it to control the crowds on the upper floors.

Then we headed over to the Roman forums and Basilica. Or at least the ruins thereof.

After that, we stopped outside of the Vatican for lunch. Which really was more expensive than it would have been across the street. Word to the wise - if a tour guide introduces you to a shop of any kind, first look around at the other shops in the same area. Chances are you're at the most expensive one and the tour guide gets a cut if you shop there.

Then, the Vatican Museum, which eventually leads into the Sistine Chapel. My god that was a long walk of over three miles. A very pretty and gilded long walk, but still incredibly long. Supposedly, you're not supposed to take any photos in the chapel itself; but no one apparently cared and there was no way to police all the people squeezed into that room, so I did take photos and video. :P Oh yeah, and to add - the place was absolutely packed, in the kind of tightly packed environment that you'd only find in popular Chinese tourist attractions. Also, it's one of the few places where it's not the Asians that are dominating the crowd. I guess there are a lot of devout Catholics out there?

Also, at this point, I need to stop and complain about our local tour guide for today. I have not had a single complaint about any of our tour guides, local and non, at any point before this. But today's lady was horrible. Her accent is thick, and she doesn't slow down, try to make things clear. She also does infodumps over her mike instead of anecdotes like all the other tour guides. This is horrible public speaking practice for the trade that she is in, because all of this information to anyone who cares too look online, and is absolutely useless at gaining the attention of her audience. Our guide yesterday was Italian with an accent too, but he was able to make the tour fun with anecdotes and facial expressions and a raw joy in the subject that is contagious. Also, whenever something goes wrong and a person on the tour doesn't do as she asks (like using the radio headphones or keeping up with the party), it's never *her* fault, but theirs. I can tell you right now that this is horrible customer service of any kind.

Anyway, the upshot of the rant above is that when we came out of the Sistine Chapel, she pointed out where the restrooms (toilettes) were for the group. Then she said something like the people who want to go should wait at the door for her to join them in 10 mins or so. So, naturally, some of us went. It wasn't until after a few of the party that didn't go to the restrooms rejoined us that we found out that she'd led the rest of the group onwards into the St. Peter cathedral, AND that once you got to the exit area with the restrooms, you are not allowed to go back. The guide insisted that she mentioned this caveat, and maybe she might have tried after we'd already left, but considering that 9 people out of 28 "misunderstood" her, that's her problem with not communicating clearly, not ours.

Anyway, the rest of us went back into line for just the cathedral, because that was one scenic spot that we should not be missing. Then afterwards, we all trundled back to the bus, only to find that we were missing one family (4 people) which held an elderly man in a wheelchair. So both our tour guides (our long term guide and our local one from today) spent the next hour looking for them while we spent that hour waiting, before deciding to move on.

Of course, that's when they finally called in to tell us that they'd already headed onto the next scenic spot on the tour a long time ago cuz they thought our group had already left while they were in the restroom. *sigh*

Anyways, better late than lost I guess. We met back up with our lost lambs at the wishing fountain place (formal name escapes me at the moment). Paused for wishes and photos. Then stopped by the Spanish Steps (I think it was called?) for a group photo. What was funny was that there was a group Finnish (Polish?) college kids at the place, who decided to invade our group photo. This lead up to a free for all of mixed group photos of mass hilarity.

Finally, we headed back for dinner, which was provided by the tour. This one was much better than the French cuisine one. It even had musical accompaniment with a nice lady who serenaded us several times throughout the meal. She also teased several of the male members of our party. Since the average age of our tour group was somewhere in the fifties (most are married with kids or even grandkids off to college), this was kinda hilarious.

Finally, we came back to the hotel, and tomorrow we say goodbye to Europe.

EDIT: OMG two more power outtages tonight. When calling in to the front desk, they're blaming it on someone using the wrong voltage plugs. No you idiots, if someone crashes their own room's outlet using the wrong plug, that's their fault. If a bunch of other unrelated customers are affected, that's YOUR fault, and YOUR responsibility. This is basic common sense in the service industry. What is wrong with you? In conclusion: do not book Holiday Inn.

The cities of Europe

I was going to write something long... but looking back on my previous posts I decided to do something short and to the point for once. So, here are some thoughts about the various cities I visited on this trip:

Safety:

The two cities that I felt the safest was in Lucerne and London. This is despite the fact that there's often not a bobby in sight (not counting the guards in the funny hats which are more of a tourist attraction than crime deterrent in London). Now, London, this was explained away by our tour guide as due to the fact that every inch of the city is covered in security cameras (due to former issues with IRA bombings) such that you can't sneeze without being caught on tape, much less commit a crime. Lucerne...I have no idea why you can feel safe in a city that goes pretty much lights out at 7 PM even if you are alone walking the streets after dark.

Paris and Italy, despite often having armed troops in public locations (seriously, are you under martial law or something?) gives me the jeebies if I'm ever not with the group. These are also the two places that multiple tour guides warn us about. Paris is apparently a city where you need to be careful of being mugged. Italy is just a nation of pickpockets and swindlers. Given that several tour members fell prey to the swindling, and almost fell prey to "pro" pickpocketing... it is kinda scary.

Bathrooms:

Lucerne had the best bathrooms hands down. Of course, that's probably cuz it had the least population, including tourism. Paris and London are okay when it comes to cleanliness, but the restrooms are often either require or "encourage" mandatory donations. >.>

Italy is the worst, especially Milan and Rome. Many of the toilets in the public restrooms there don't even have the bench part of the toilet, just the underlying bowl. That's just... ugh. I'd take even the squat toilets of China from 10 years ago over some of those.

Ambience/Architecture:

Personal opinion time...but I think pretty much all the post-renaissance stuff is overly gilded and tacky. That just leaves Lucerne and the older parts of Rome. The Roman ruins are fun from a historical perspective. But personally I like the quaint calmness of Lucerne

General Annoyances:

* Breakfasts in European hotels suck; don't hold any expectations unless you're paying exorbitant prices for the gourmet experience.

* Every freaking country has a different outlet format. Apparently if you buy a set of international adapters, you get like 7 different ones for Europe. This makes no sense to me - why would you unify your monetary system but not the electrical things bought with said money? Wouldn't this make it hell to buy any kind of equipment/appliance that comes with a plug from a different European country? WTF.

* Hot water is an alien concept unheard of in many European shops. Including the ones that serve tea.

* There's nothing all that special about 99% of the ice cream shops (gellateria) in Italy. You just need to find that one store which offers unlimited number of tiny scoops of every flavor in the shop on a single cone for an affordable price. That is, I've heard of such a thing. Never seen it with my own eyes though.

* Beware the pickpockets and guard your purse carefully. Do not make any form of eye contact of do anything to acknowledge random street vendors coming up to you and try to shake your hand/take your picture/stuff things in your hand. If you do, expect to pay or have a escape route/scapegoat handy.

* Prices are horrendous all around, and that's even before you convert to USD. I try not to think too much on it in order not to spoil what's supposed to be a fun vacation.