AAHHHH Day one in Rome

Hello to all.  did the full on tourist thing in Rome today.  Planned on an early start to get to St. Peters Basilica before the crowds.  Slept in, missed the bus, when I got on it the knucklehead behind mr kept standing up (very naughty on these buses) and hitting me in the back of the head with his gut.  I nearly retaliated with mine.  Anyway, mentioned the gut assaults to him in no certain terms and then all was fine.  And yep, the bloody crowds were there before me.  2 hours in the line in the sun with no hat (lost my bloody hat somewhere about 3 cities back).  Once I got to the main gate area some bloody italians with their kids decided to push in in front of me didn't they.  Well, I mumbled something about pushing in, teaching their kids bad manners, etc and gave them a few evil stares and the mothers started to giggle at me so I pulled out my camera and started taking photos of them all.  That gave them the message and they slunk back about 5 metres behind me.  got a pat on the back by a young fella from Hungary.  But may I say, absolutely worth the wait.  Very interesting place.  Did the dead pope cemetery which covers the inside of the basilica.  Didn't bother with the sisine chapel cos the queue was the same and I was over waiting.  Anyway went walking and did the Vittorria Monument then on to Trevi Fountain (more bloody crowds) and it was a battle to get near the water but managed to throw a coin in.  Then I went on to the Pantheon (yes sneakers and Domo the Pantheon).  Very impressive place and it was a beautiful clear day as well.  Also did the temple of Adriano and the sacred area where good old Ceasar got knifed in the back by his mates.  I've got so many photos that I'm starting to confuse myself about what is what.  I've also filled a 4 gig stick and started a second.
Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the metro and go to the Coloseum and the old roman ruins.  I'll see where that takes me tomorrow.

running out of time CIAO

Lucas