A bird in the hand

Admittedly, we didn't check his schedule, but then to be fair he didn't check with us either. And you know what they say: “A bird in the hand is worth touring with Bush."

So it was that we returned to St Peter's this morning to climb the dome, only to find that the dome had been closed for the entire day for “security reasons”. It seems to me there are two possible explanations:

1. Security scare prompted by discovery of a “cache” of foreign (Swiss?) weapons nearby.
2. President Bush's one-day visit to Rome.

Thwarted in our plans, we headed to the Colosseum. (I believe named after the queue required to enter the facility.) They had helpful signs saying “20 minutes from this point", which were only underestimates of about 80%. We think this was due on that particular day to their requirement for exact change—something not advertised prior to arrival at the front of the queue.

The Colosseum is something of an engineering marvel, and included pulley and trapdoor systems to enable gladiators, weapons, and wild animals to appear directly into the middle of the arena. Dead(ly) clever! Finishing there, wandered surrounding ruins before heading to the Pantheon—free! (Incorrectly...) Convinced Bronwyn that taking a couple of buses would be faster than walking there. When bus number one was stopped by police some distance from our destination we realised our error. Streets were closed and traffic disrupted as apparently 10,000 police and security staff were deployed around the city for Bush's visit and the accompanying “Pace” (peace) marches through the central city.

While St Peter's basilica has the largest masonry dome in the world, Michelangelo designed it ensuring that the Pantheon remained the widest, at 1m greater diameter. He did this apparently to honour the ancient Romans who had first figured out how to build such an architectural wonder. That it still stands today, 2200 years later, is testament to the fact that they got it right. A beautiful building inside, with colourful frescoes and mosaics from antiquity. Outside unfortunately bears the scars of scavenging at the highest level... A large bronze facing above the entrance was melted down by Bernini, at the Pontiff's direction, to complete an installation over St Peter's tomb in his basilica.