After seeing the heavyweights of the Roman tourist sights, I had to work out what to do next. Lucky there were still many things left to see. The next day saw me at the capuchin crypt early in the morning - lucky I didnt go at night! This has to be one of the scariest things that I have seen. The capuchin monks used human bones - those of prior monks - to decorate the crypt in all sorts of designs. The first room has a painting of Lazarus and his resurrection, and is decorated with pelvises and skulls, with femurs making up a wall at the back of the room. The second room has ulnas and radii used as centrepieces with whole spines as borders. Gradually increasing in gruesomeness, the third room has a severed human arm - only half decomposed - hanging from the wall. The final room holds the piece de la resistance, the skeletons of children - one of which is nailed to the ceiling. What possessed these monks to preserve their dead in such a novel and admittedly creepy fashion, I will never know. I was happy to leave the place, with a visit to the Trevi Fountain next on the itinerary, hopefully a little more cheerful!
The Trevi fountain was absolutely packed with tourists when I arrived. The monolithic structure is worthy of its great fame, with superb marble statues much larger than man looming over the crowd. The Trevi fountain is also the beginning of the walk through the old town to the Pantheon, along which are lined lots of touristy restaurants. The pantheon is grand but quite a modest form of greco-roman architecture, and I did not spend a long time in there. After a short while, the constant loud recordings of "silence, please" in four languages seem strangely ironic.
After the Pantheon, I walked across to Trastevere, the most beautiful suburb in Rome. Small, well decorated and very cute restaurants line the pavements along a windy stretch of roads starting in piazza trastevere. The pavement-layer was clearly as drunk as all the guests in the restaurants, as all of the streets wind in the cutest way imaginable.
The day after these extensive wanderings, I was in for another long walking day. After the metro broke down on the way to the Vatican, I got off early at the Piazza del Popolo and wandered along the roads, seeing on the way the Augustus mausoleum, and a castle. The piazza of the Vatican is very grand, although I did not enter the basilica. I saved my time at the Vatican instead for the Vatican museum, which was more richly furnished than any I have seen. The hallway of cartographers was very interesting, as well as the statues. I loved Rafaels Stanza, filled with brightly coloured characters that almost seem to come to life, and preferred it to Michelangelos paintings in the Sistine chapel.
After wandering the Vatican museums for hours, I walked up a hill which promised to be a national park. Instead, it turned out to be where all the rich people lived. I did happenstance upon the nicest fountain in Rome, however - the Font dAcqua, which is much more peaceful than Trevi, and gives the grandest view of Rome that could be wanted for. The next day, it was to Naples - the city known for pizza and theivery, and not much else!
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