I'm not sure if I heard it playing in a store or perhaps it was Brad singing it to himself that planted the seed in my brain, but the entire time we were in Rome I had that old Joan Osborne "What If God Was On Of Us" song stuck in my head. Actually it was one verse in particular:
Back up to heaven all alone
No, nobody calling on the phone
No, just tryin' to make his way home
Nobody calling on the phone
'Cept for the Pope maybe in Rome
So of course we had to swing by and say howdy to the Pope, and so began our Vatican adventure. Vatican City is a city within a city;it is located within the city limits of Rome, but is a sovereign city-state. I got the impression that it was less of a sovereign city than a sovereign corporation.
AS we walked into the city we were greeted by deluxe tour buses filled with hordes of believers on their holy pilgrimage. The tour buses arrived with the frequency of a Disney ride and spilled their occupants onto the cobblestone to wait in a line (also of Disney proportions).
The Vatican Museum was stunning in its immense collection of art and history. It was complete ocular over stimulation. Every nook and cranny in that joint is packed to the gills with spectacular samples of the brilliance of human artistic achievement. My favorite segment of our tour was the creatively named "Hall of Maps".
Brad was able to check another name off the TMNT challenge and our visit culminated in sharing the spectacular glory of the Sistine Chapel with two thousand others, all of us being collectively "shushed" by the guards.
Unfortunately no Pope sightings, I think he was on the phone.
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