Sometimes you need to experience the bad

Sometimes you need to experience the bad to appreciate the good. We were spoilt with fabio and our fabulous private tour. The adults knew it but the bambinis at times felt like it was a history lesson at school. It was a hot day and we wanted to see the Vatican. We couldn't get fabio for the day and thought we would find someone there who would be able to help us fast track the queues. We found Christiania who was an American very lovely she worked at the Vatican part time. We would be on a group tour and it would be leaving in about 15 mins. Short talk and then we would be inside in no time at all. Prob about 15-20 people on the tour. Sounds good we're in. We had a quick drink and waited. While we waited for the tour to begin people began to appear from nowhere to join our group. We had a group of nuns (how cute) but there were 10 of them. The Spanish family, the Americans and the scarily clad family in short shorts and singlets. And a sprinkling of other odd bods. Christiania than began. An entertaining talk about Nero and Rome burning. She was interrupted by a question from one of nuns. Oh no I though the nuns they are going to ask lots of lots of questions. Another thing about tour groups I find is that when people join them they lose all common sense, when someone else is in charge they feel a need to surrender everything instead of searching for a bathroom themselves they just ask your guide instead of turning around and looking for where to buy a drink they ask the tour guide. As Christina began to talk about the current pope ....any questions ...yes the Germans wanted to know where to get batteries for his camera.... Christiania tells the scantily clad family that they won't be able to get in without covering up....so what do we do??? They ask. I wanted to scream out take some responsibility people. Use your hats to cover your shoulders like I had years earlier. I kept my thoughts to myself. 45 mins later with the sun beating down and we hadn't even gotten inside the Vatican walls yet. We started to move and Christina pointed to a great pizza place and excellent place to get coffee. This brought on another question this time from the Spanish family... Can we stop and get a coffee! I looked at my husband and sent a telepathic message "get me out of here".. And before he could say... " what do you think.. I had handed our headsets to Christiania said one of the kids was sick (I lied right next to the Vatican) got our pocket knife back and we were on our way. The kids longed for fabio and his history tour. I said to them one day you'll come back to Rome and you'll appreciate the Vatican that much more. Goodbye to Rome!