Anybody got a message for the Pope? I'm in his backyard.

[onager]

:rofl:

Yeah, I just bet y'all do. The same message as me.

Which is just my tacky way of saying arrivederci, y'all: I'm in Rome.

:hi:

Yes, I do get vacations from Egypt every now and then. (Well, every 4 months.)

I will be here until Feb. 5, then I'm going to Venice for a few days.

I've never been to either city and have wanted to see them all my life. So...erm...here I am.

Nice hotel room, looking right down into the Villa Borghese. For you Romaphiles who have been here before.

Signing off to wander the streets on a rainy night. Like I CARE that it's raining...will talk to you later.

[Warpy]

1. "There were never enough lions"

would be what my Sharpie would be scrawling on one of the Vatican buildings.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. !

:spank:

:toast:

[TZ]

3. ......

Gee Warpy don't be shy...tell us what you really think!!!!:rofl:
I think I see where you get your screenname from....:evilgrin:

[Warpy]

6. The sentiment came from surviving Catholic school

Had you been there, you'd understand.

Had you been there as a girl, you'd really understand.

[Pale Blue Dot]

12. Wow. That was a lot more creative then what I wanted to say.

I like yours better. :applause:

[Deep13]

4. "Why don't you take that upside-down post-holer of a hat...."

Well, you can figure out the rest.

I would suggest that some of those Vatican treasures could go a long way toward raising money for family planning, contraceptives, vaccines and AIDS-awareness in Africa and Latin-America. Just sayin' iz all.

[moggie]

5. Why does the Popemobile have bullet-proof glass?

Also, how much do your fancy shoes cost?

[Lost-in-FL]

19. Because God can't stop bullets on its own. n/t

[Evoman]

7. Ask him if he could find me a job. Preferably one where I could still fuck women.

Little kids aren't my style.

[TZ]

10. .......

:spray:
You sir, are pure evil!:thumbsup:

[progressoid]

8. Romani ite domum?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIAdHEwiAy8

Centurion: What's this, then? "Romanes eunt domus"? People called Romanes, they go the house?
Brian: It says, "Romans go home."
Centurion: No, it doesn't! What's the Latin for "Roman"? Come on, come on !
Brian: Er, "Romanus"!
Centurion: Goes like?
Brian: Annus.
Centurion: Vocative plural of "Annus" is?
Brian: Er, "Anni"!
Centurion: "Romani"... "Eunt"? What is "eunt"?
Brian: "Go".
Centurion: Conjugate the verb, "to go"!
Brian: Er, "Ire." Er, "eo," "is," "it," "imus," "itis," "eunt."
Centurion: So, "eunt" is... ?
Brian Third person plural present indicative, "they go".
Centurion: But, "Romans go home" is an order. So you must use... ?
Brian: Aaagh! Imperative!
Centurion: Which is...?
Brian: Aaaaagh! Er, er... "i", "i"!
Centurion: How many Romans?
Brian: Aaaaagh! Plural, plural... er, "ite"!
Centurion: "Ite"... "Domus"? Nominative? "Go home" is motion toward, isn't it?
Brian: Dative! Aaagh! Not the dative, not the dative! Er, er... accusative, accusative, "ad domum", sir, "ad domum"!
Centurion: Except "Domus" takes the...?
Brian: The locative, sir!
Centurion: Which is...?
Brian: "Domum"!
Centurion: "Domum"... Um. Understand? Now, write it out a hundred times.
Brian: Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Hail Caesar, sir.
Centurion: Hail Caesar! And if it's not done by sunrise, I'll cut your balls off.

[pink-o]

9. Oh, Honey you gotta go into that Villa Borghese!!!

I LOVE Rome, Venice, Florence, Sorento, Positano, Cinque Terre....well you get the pic, I'm totally Italophile. And yes, I've been thru St Peter's Bacillica without getting stuck by lightning (How can a God who doesn't exist smite a woman who doesn't believe in him, after all??). From an artistic standpoint, the Vatican and St Peter's are breathtaking--what makes so the latter is all the sculpture by Bernini. He's also the dude who did the 4 rivers fountain in the Piazza Navona, and all the statues on top of the Ponte Santangelo.

But his best work BY FAR: Villa Borghese. He has his own interpretation of David with the slingshot, as well as Apollo chasing Daphne and the kidnapping of Proserpina. These sculptures are so amazing, they look like they can come alive at any time!

I also love the park that surrounds it, but I was a bit disappointed that when I walked to it on the Via Venetto I didn't get pinched or hassled! Too old, I guess.

Anyway, enjoy Venice too! Are you gonna be there for Carnivale? I envy you--always wanted to go at that time! Just hold onto your wallet, you'll never be able to identify a masked pick-pocket!

As for the Nazi pope, he can kiss my fat agnostic/semitic ass!

[JNelson6563]

11. I like Italy too

I find their art to be much like their politics; intricate, complicated.........

All is complex but the food which is rather forthright. :toast:

Julie

[pink-o]

14. And Truly Taste-gasmic

You wouldn't think Pesto would taste too much different in Genoa than it does anywhere else in the world, but it's intense there.

Although I gotta say, having just come home from Australia and New Zealand, the food I had there rivals some that I've had in France and Italy. And the portions are HUGE, unlike most European countries.

Croatia has great food and wine as well, and a lot cheaper than Italy, since they're not on the Euro yet.

[onager]

15. VB is having a special Canova exhibition this week.

Thanks for all the tips, pink-o.

I'm staying on Via Veneto. Near a historical marker designating the "Largo Federico Fellini."

That just cracks me up.

I really want to see Canova's nude statue of Pauline Bonaparte (Napoleon's sister), reclining with an apple.

That was an interesting woman. In the same sense as the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times," I guess.

If I remember my Nasty History right, Pauline went to Paris while still a teen-ager and sewed a lot of wild oats. The Bonapartes were something like the Bush family of their time, noted for two-handed money grabbing, corruption and intense social climbing. Pauline eventually married into a wealthy and titled family. But her husband died after a couple of years, allegedly due to syphillis contracted from Pauline.

[JNelson6563]

13. Do keep us apprised of your adventures

and check your e-mail from time to time. ;-)

Julie

[NMMNG]

16. Heh

Just tell him the gaytheist says "hi". :evilgrin:

[TZ]

17. FYI I have a relative whos traveled all over the world

(including Egypt 2 years ago) and Italy is one of his favorite places. HOWEVER I should warn you he found Venice to be very disappointing, smelly and dirty. He says Florence is one of the nicest places in Italy however.
I do envy you, though. Have fun!!

[deepthought42]

18. St. Peter was a bunny rabbit!!!

Hippitus Hoppitus...

:rofl:

[onager]

20. OK, I'm back

:hi:

Had a great trip to Rome and Venice, except for catching the flu or something my last day in Venice and being miserable.

Along with all the other good reasons for visiting Venice, I discovered one more: at various times, various Popes have excommunicated the entire population of Venice because of the city's heretical ideas.

Two of the city's most famous monuments are religious in a bizarre sort of way--the two giant pillars bearing the winged lion of St. Mark and the weird statue of St. Theodore with a crocodile, in St. Mark's Square. (Interesting Trivia: the space between these religious icons is where Venice used to hold its public executions.)

I got to Venice on the last day of Carnival--their equivalent of Mardi Gras. Threw the bags in the room and immediately went downtown!

I'd never been there before and didn't have a map, so banging around those narrow little streets between the canals was like being stuck in a dream or maybe a Fellini movie. Masked and heavily costumed people running around everywhere. I basically just followed any interesting group of people I saw.

My favorite couple was a guy dressed as a nun and his girlfriend dressed as a priest.

[Kolesar]

21. Bicycling magazine said that Italy has very cycle-oriented culture

The racers are celebrities and everybody thinks of themselves as past or present cyclists. Was it that way at all? You would be correct in assuming that I would dig that.

[onager]

22. I saw some of that.

Mostly in the number of magazines etc. devoted to it. (Magazines! I went from a country with NO big Western-style newsstands, to a place with a huge newsstand in almost every block. I must have added 50 pounds to my luggage, all in magazines.)

Since it was winter, that probably cut down on the number of cyclists. It rained every day I was in Rome, though happily not continuously.