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Rome is great. Loud, lively and invigorating. In fact its so invigorating I might go somewhere quieter for the New Year’s to have a bit of a rest.

A Roman Christmas

Nickjenkins
2003-11-20 11:12:08

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police look on with small amused smiles and snigger quietly to each other about the general stupidity of foreign tourists. Rome in general was not good for my health.

At St Peters I nearly suffered a nasty accident. As I sat down to contemplate the Piazza, a kindly looking old man sat down next to me. He gave me a brief, toothless grin, reached into his bag and pulled out a bread roll. He waved the roll in my general direction and then tossed it casually out across the piazza.

In seconds the sky was transformed into a boiling mass of grey feathered bodies, all vectored in on my position. Resisting the temptation to flee, I sat very still in case I was mistaken for something edible by the throng of pigeons that surrounded the roll like a horde of locusts (only bigger and with feathers). After the panic subsided I managed to retreat from the feeding frenzy and slip quietly away. A narrow escape!

St Peter's itself is magnificent and I think they may have cornered the market in impressive churches. I suspect that you could tuck some smaller and less magnificent churches (like London’s St Paul’s) into the naves of St Peter’s and it would be some time before anyone noticed.

It's nearly enough to drive a man to religion... nearly. A friend of mine pointed out that despite the obvious opulence of the place they still had a collection box bolted to the wall in front of the door. It seems like an affront to all those pilgrims that have made there way across the world to arrive at the magnificence of St Peter’s and be confronted by a grasping hand in the name of good works.

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