Monday, May 21, 2012

Italy...wait for it.

I have been in Italy for just over a week and this morning I finally did an Oscar change while we were staying in Firenze. I figured Oscar and I are long overdue for a blog post and as I have been sitting on this train (heading into Venice) for over an hour stuck in Bologna (earthquake last night has wrecked some track), the timing is perfect.
Today's blog isn't an adventure so much as an account of everything I have done in the last week all thanks to my ostomy.
We flew from Toronto,Canada into Rome, Italy on Monday where we spent the day in bed...completely exhausted after the almost 24 hour oddessy. On the plus side, I didn't use the washroom once on the flight from Toronto to Rome. When we did land we had to go through customs and it was over a 1/2 an hour wait, in a line.
The second day in Rome we headed to Vatican city to see the Sistine Chapel and St.Peter's Basilica. There were lines everywhere. Want to see a marble bust of a saint? Wait in a line. Want to see the Pieta? Wait in line. Want to see some tapestries? Wait in line. Want to see the inside of the chapel? Wait in line. There are over 17,000 people that pass through the Basilica EVERY DAY and between the pushing, shoving, jostling, people stopping to take pictures of every crack and crevice, the 1000's of pieces of artwork and everything else to gawk at in Vatican City, it takes a very long time and there are very long lines everywhere.
We headed to the Coliseum next and the length of the lines were astounding. I didn't realize there were that many people in Rome let alone that many people willing to wait around to see piles of rock that have been there for over 2,000 years. We waited in another line and where able to check "see the coliseum" off the bucket list. We eventually got very hungry and wandered into a restaurant were we had to...wait for service, wait for our food, wait for the cheque and generally WAIT.
We spent 3 days total in Rome and the last 3 days have been spent in Firenze either asleep, waiting, shopping, waiting, eating, waiting or waiting in a line to see the same darn things that 1000's of others wanted to see.
I have been able to do everything, see everything, eat everything and wait in every long line. I keep asking my mom (my travel partner extrodinaire) how people without ostomy's do the line/waiting thing? She only shakes her head and tells me how lucky I am that all I have to worry about is the occasional sore feet from all the standing.
I am looking forward to Venice and am very excited to get to Slovenia so I can hug Andi and Miha and witness their wedding.
Thank you Oscar, you have truly made this Italian/Slovenian trip possible.

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