He must work out

Today’s title inspiration comes from a collaborative effort between the fantastic sculpture pictured here—found high aloft a victory memorial to some semi-famous dead guy in Rome—and the movie Dumb and Dumber. If you’ve seen the film you might recall Harry and Lloyd sauntering behind a couple in Aspen, at which point Harry muses: “Would you look at the butt on that!” and Lloyd responds: “Yeah, he must work out.” When walking in Rome you just get to see a lot of these well-sculpted derriers (pun intended).

We arrived Wednesday afternoon to our B&B in what appears to be the ‘china town’ section of Rome. We are near the train station and within walking distance of most of the key sights in this great city. Granted, walking distance is used a little loosely, because sometimes it means a solid hour or more. But the exercise is good for us. I’d say we’re shedding the pounds, but with the cuisine around here, that’s really not true. Add some gelato to that and, well, I’m a little pudgy (yeah it’s me again, Joel).


We learned yet again the valuable lesson that you should always check the holiday calendar when planning a trip like this. It got us last weekend in Cinque Terre, and it nipped us again here in Rome. Apparently May 1st is another national holiday essentially in the form of Labor Day, and it means that most businesses, archeological sites, and museums are closed. Awesome. There was a parade starting about 2 blocks from our B&B, which seemed to have occupied all of the police forces in the city limits—so while they were all occupied with the parade, I broke into the Sistine Chapel and spray painted the ceiling =) In all seriousness, we made the most of it and enjoyed sauntering our way around the city with no particular agenda. We did check out the Vatican, and fortunately beat the heaviest rush. As it was a holiday, St. Peter’s Basilica was the only part we could take in, but it was worth the stop.

We ate lunch while escaping the heat under the shadow of the Colosseum—it is every bit as impressive as you might imagine except for the fact that it is just planted right in the middle of the city. Roads run right along the outside of it, but (at least today) not many cars were attempting to fight through all the people. We took a siesta. There’s probably a different word in Italian, but the concept is the same. And you know what they say: ‘when in Rome….’ We then explored more of the area around the Colosseum before enjoying a quaint dinner on some side streets across the Tiber River from where we were staying.

Today we've gotten to see the insides of some of the places we passed yesterday: Palatine Hill and Forum, Colosseum, and the Pantheon. All pretty cool, but the heat, crowds, and walking everywhere were starting to get to us. Tonight we are leaving, and that comes both with sadness and with joy. We are ready for home, but have loved the memories here. This will likely be our last post before we are back in the States, so we’ll let you know when we arrive. Ciao!