Italy I - Rome!! payanam seiDhom!!

Finally the day arrived when we had to leave for Italy..enaku aana ulla sema udharal, coz I had got the Schengen visa for France, but am entering Italy. To add to it, engakitta vera soltanga, that Italy-la Indians-na "appadi orama nillu"-nduvanganu. Seri ok, most probably appadiye returns of London-nu decide pantu I tagged along with others. We were 4 of us, engaloda innoru couple-um vandhanga.

So we left for the airport..naan decent-a ennoda jumper and jacket mattika ponen, to be prepared for the cold, aduku enga thanga thalaivar said, "che che, idhellam edhuku, its going to be a sunny trip!"-nu sema kushiya sonna udane, we all took thin jackets and left. Airport poi flight eri, oru 2 hrs kazhichu Italy land panrom...thideernu pappara pappara paaaan-nu oru trumpet satham, tension aagi nimirndhu partha, a voice boomed on the speaker "we have again arrived ahead of schedule"-nu solludhu! Ada paavigala, flight timings-a extrava pottu usual time-ku vandhuttu ivalo scene-a??

We disembarked the flight, and luckily for us, immigration-la kelviye kekkala, appadiye anuppitanga. We headed outside, and based on the information I gathered, we waited in a queue to buy a daily pass in Rome (adhula appadidhan ezhudirundhanga). Counter kitta ponappuram, the lady behind the counter said in broken english that they don't accept cards. Ada karmame-nu we searched for an ATM, and after a looong time found one. Avasara avasarama panam eduthuttu thirumba counter vandhu rome-ku ponum, ticket kodu, atha vaiyum-nu ketta...andha lady cool-a solranga - "no daily pass here, only weekly pass"! Grr..I don't want to say what I thought then.

Airport vittu velila vandhu, we stood in the queue to board the bus, it was quite sunny. We were all happy, and the other girl in our group even complained "acho, naan karuthuda poren-nu bayama iruku", we all laughed and boarded the bus. Konja neram kazhichu, bus-lerndhu irangarom...sema kulir!! Chumma pirichu meinju eduthadha partha udane, we all stared at thanga thalaivar, but immediately started laughing, coz he had happily left behind his jacket in London :)) So adutha 1 hr we spent time searching for a suitable jacket that he could wear.

Next we went to the hotel, had food, and left for the Vatican city. Oh, enga plan sollalaye, the plan was to explore Rome the first day, the second day to Venice and the 3rd day to Pisa. It was a universally criticized plan, coz rome needs more than a day. But hols engaluku avalodhan irundhadhu, so we were cramming up the attractions. Vatican city-ku poi Michaelangelo painting parthuttu, appadiye St. Peter's basilica poganumnu kilambinom.

We entered the museum after a 15 min wait, and ulla partha ellam udainja statues! Aniyayathuku udainju pona statues ellam vachu panam panrangale-nu light enga stomach-la oru theeyara vasanai vandhudhu, we went to the paintings section. Ulla porom...porom...porom, andha Michaelangelo painting-e kanom! We kind of got caught into a never ending passage of left and right turns to get there, kadaiseela veruthu poi Michael-um vendam, avar painting-um vendam-nu thittite (naandhan) we tried going to the exit, but unfortunately the exit has to go via the Sistine chapel where the angelo painting is. Nondhu poi we reached the chapel finally..partha mela dhammathoondu-ku andha painting iruku, along with other paintings. Podha kuraiku, no camera, no noise-nu school headmaster range-ku adakittanga anga irundha security menmakkal :( Seri vitta podhumnu, we hurried to the exit.

By now, we had spent 2 hrs, and it was already 4:30, seri Colosseum poi mudichidalam, that is more important than the Basilica-ntu we took the train and went to Colosseum. We had run out of cash, so the other 2 had gone to a distant place, found an ATM and came back. Ok, all is well-nu when we went to the Colosseum spot, anga oruthar Italian-la engakitta solrar, "Colosseum is closed because papa is giving a speech here for Easter Friday"! Major sodhappal!! Yes Popeku 'Papa'nutu innoru name italian languagela irruku. Ayya Pope Andavare, neenga speech tharardhukudhan avalooo periya vatican city vachirukeenga-la, anga thara vendiyadhudhane?? Kodumai Kodumai-nu church-ku pona anga kodumai jingle bells jingle bells-nu adina kadhaidhan enga Rome kadhai!!