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Wednesday, August 5, 2009

6 August, 4AM


4AM checking in… My room is on the front of the hotel and a pretty busy street. The window is double paned and shuts out the noise quite well. I have it open now and can listen to the neighborhood getting its first morning stretch. The only traffic are trucks, which are surprisingly less annoying noise than the scooters later in the day. The sheer number is amazing. From my window I can count over 75 parked scooters. That is within a city block. Today we will walk to the Vatican for our tour with Maria at 2PM. We took a taxi back from the Pantheon last night and drove in front of St. Peter’s. It’s an impressive space but strangely smaller than I imagined. BTW, the Taxi was only 6,90 Euros, which surprised me. I was expecting 30 or even 40 from some of the info that’s been provided. It’s the same the world over; taxi drivers easily and often rip off tourists. We took a much shorter ride [half the distance] and were charged 8 Euros by a driver who feigned ignorance of English but knew enough to tell us his meter was broken. I wonder if there is an international organization for taxi drivers who might address this phenomenon. Will check it out when I have absolutely nothing else to do. My new mantra.

1 comment:

Susan aka Chicken Mama said...

I am anxious to hear what you have to say after your vatican tour. I was surprisingly moved by it all. I guess what really got me was seeing the spear that was used to poke Jesus while he was on the cross. At least I was gullible enough to believe that was the actual spear! Also, to recognize that one of the apostles is buried there. WOW. Rome changed the way I looked at history.

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