Italians are somewhat crazy, but Rome and Venice were nice...

Continuing from the last post here.

I forgot to mention one thing about the Thais. Their language. What is it called really? No offense to anyone who use it, but I couldn't really stand it. I mean, hell, it sounded like something in between a badly reciting poem and a welcome speech of the annual prize giving back in our school days. There I was at the duty free shops, just wandering here and there and in almost all the shops the prizes of stuff were in Bhat, which is their local currency. I wanted to know the exchange rate, so asked the shop assistant. She turns to the other lady at the counter and goes;

"Yomwaaaaaaaaa...... hakks omm hana tha kanaaaa?"

"Ugth, un-akht omm meyuuu owaa kaaaaa"

Comes the reply.

I was like WTF, really. And didn't bother asking exchange rates or anything else for that matter thereafter.

OK, then several hours later I arrived at Fiumicino Airport in Rome where my aunt and uncle had come to pick me up. Oh and know what? When the plane landed, almost all the Italians in it started clapping! I was wondering what's that about and for a brief moment thought that maybe a scene from a Hindi movie was taking place there. You know, after all the turns and twists of three and a half hours, at the end the guy and the girl get together and everyone watching starts clapping, right? But then realized that they're actually clapping for the successful landing. Who knows, maybe it's a rare thing in Italy to land without any incidents. They might as well have screamed "We're alive! We're ALIVE!!"

Then, after another hour or so car ride I finally arrived at their house - not an Italian's who clapped, but my aunt's place - and had a great time catching up with them. It was like after a couple or so years that I met them and had loads to talk about. It was a wonderful time. Though I was somewhat tired, didn't want to get any sleep. And later in the day we went out to see some stuff there, one of which was this awesome fountain that I've forgotten the name of. It is said that if you throw a coin to it while wishing something, the said wish will come true. Naturally, both me and my nanga had our wishes so didn't hesitate to go ahead. Can't tell you what it is though, because you're not supposed to tell anyone your wishes. And there were some really beautiful girls and my uncle being the crazy dude he is started taking pictures of me with them so it looked like we were together. But when I tried to return him the favor my aunt appeared out of nowhere and refused point blank to allow it. A point-for why I shouldn't get married - at least for now.

The day after we went to see the Vatican City, which actually is the smallest separate country in the world which is headed by The Pope. And again, there happened a very lucky incident. Ever since I was a kid, I was fascinated by both history and art. History, probably because of my father's influence and art because, well I was a little bit good at it. Thus I have read about and studied the works of great artists of those times, the greats like Michelangelo, Raphael, Picasso and so many others. Of them, I had a special liking for Michelangelo's works for many of them were truly awesome and sort of impossible, if you know what I mean. One of them is The Last Judgement, a true masterpiece done on the altar of the Sistine Chapel. But I had totally forgotten that it was located in Rome, in Vatican at that time, when I suddenly saw a picture postcard of it in a nearby souvenir shop. Then it suddenly dawned on me that it is somewhere close by! Few inquiries were made and we learned that it was a few hundred meters from where we were. Despite my nanga's protests - saying that her feet hurt - I dragged them all there and got to see it. IT WAS AWESOME! Back in the days when I was a child and reading all about it, I never really thought that there would come a day that I'd actually get to see it with my own eyes. It was such a great feeling, to actually see it - feel it. The next day we went to see the Colosseum, which was also another thing that I was always amazed at, and I might have taken hundreds of pictures. It was so huge that even with my wide angle lens I couldn't capture it in whole when I was inside. Such an awesome work of construction it was.

Then a couple of days later we went to Venice. It was so unique. When you come to think of it, there isn't much there to see. Certainly the chapels, cathedrals and all those stuff in Rome are majestic in comparison to what they have there in Venice. It's just water, water and water, but there is something special about it. It's something very hard to describe - you need to feel it. I would love to return there some day. And the Gondola ride was cool. It was indeed something special, Venice was.

All in all, the trip was refreshing, and worth every penny - well, actually Euro I should say - that was spent. It was like coming one of my childhood dreams come true. Rome and Venice were two places that I always wanted to go see since, well ever since I knew them, and now that I've been there wonder when I'd get to go to Egypt. You see, the great pyramids of Egypt, you can't resist them can you?