When in Rome...

It's a big holiday weekend throughout Italy. Tuesday is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and Italians are making a four-day weekend of it. While there are few foreign tourists this time of year, Rome is mobbed by Italians visiting their capital. Tour groups are swamping the popular sights and some exhibits and events are already booked up.

Italians do not understand, or adamantly refuse to acknowledge, the concept of a queue or line. Whether boarding a bus or train, buying tickets, entering a museum, or passing through security, it's always a mad dash as they all try to jostle their way to the front. This denial of line courtesy is pervasive throughout both genders and all ages: Italian matrons are as guilty as teenage males.

We're seeing new things this trip, going to places we've never seen before. Last Saturday, for example, we went to Palazzo Madama, home of the Italian Senate. It's only open to the public on the first Saturday of the month, and all the visitors are Italian. Our guide, a Senate employee, gave a witty tour of the building (in Italian, of course). I say 'witty' because all the Italians in our group frequently chuckled and we, of course, chuckled along to fit in.

On Sunday we visited the Palazzo Quirinale, the official residence of the President. It's only open on Sunday mornings and, because of the holiday, it was jammed. We waited in line for an hour and a half. The palazzo's baroque ostentation was not to my taste, but I was in awe of the guards. There must be a minimum height requirement, as they were all at least 6 foot 4 and more buff than Paris policemen. Some were in gaudy uniforms, some in elegant long black wool coats, but they were evidently ready for any tricks you might try to pull. So don't even try, buster.

Also on Sunday we went to the Centrale Montemartini, a great museum created inside an old power plant. Much of the machinery has been cleaned up and left in place, used as a background for displaying Roman Republican statuary. On a busy holiday weekend, it was deserted; even Italians are not aware of all their cultural assets.

More photos have been going up on Flickr.