A day in Rome. Also, a gross thing.

Today, we felt so overwhelmed by Rome (it takes up six pages of maps in Lonely Planet, has 900 churches, et cetera) that we thought we would just learn the whole thing on foot, before choosing what activities to actually DO or pay for. You can't just museum-hop when it costs €8 per entrance. We walked to the Tiber River, Colosseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Piazza di Spagna, a big park, and then we stuffed ourselves into the subway during rush hour. SMART.

Now, we are armed with knowledge of Rome by foot, and have some chance of processing what we read in the books. For instance, we know how to get to the Vatican. We have to see the Sistine Chapel, right? Right. This kind of thing.

Okay, now the gross thing. This morning, I saw a stain on the pavement and guessed that it was the result of a pigeon's death; it was red and had feathers in it. Later, we learned exactly how such an event occurs. These two pigeons were chilling in the middle of the road, eating some garbage, and this truck comes rolling down the street. It was just a normal-sized truck, not moving very fast. The pigeons, they just didn't move, at all! One lucked out, he was right between the wheels. The truck rolled straight over the second one, at which point I quickly looked away, but I was pretty sure of what happened, because... well, it POPPED. Pigeons must be mostly filled with air. There was a loud pop, like if a soccer ball had slipped under the tires. And when I looked back, there was, like before, just a feathery stain.

I felt bad for the pigeon, but like I said to Jessica, live by the city, die by the city.