彭蒙惠英语：Roam Rome on Fleet Feet（在线收听）

Roam Rome on Fleet Feet

By Anne Chalfant / © 2004, as first appeared in the Contra Costa Times, Knight Ridder Newspapers.

Distributed by Tribune Media Services International.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but you can see a lot of it in three

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We can’t tour Rome any way but fast. A whole lifetime isn’t enough to savor the art and marvel at the antiquities this famous Italian city has to offer. So it is the three-day lightning tour of Rome for us.

Luckily, we have an advance scout. Our son Ethan, an architecture student, is spending a semester abroad in Rome. He knows the fast track to tourist sites, and can also direct his parents to his favorite less-visited Roman treasures.

Vatican fast track

Outwitting the massive crowds that visit the Vatican, we tour the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica in a couple of hours. How? We arrive early, right when the museums open, buy our tickets and walk briskly through the beckoning artwork with nary a glance, eyes alert for the small printed signs directing us to the Sistine Chapel. Most people get waylaid on the circuitous route through the treasure-filled Vatican museums, but we don’t stop.

The chapel is nearly empty when we arrive. Michelangelo’s masterpiece is all ours. We sit on a bench with heads tilted back to delight in the ceiling popping with muscle-bound lads and that stern finger of God ordering Adam and Eve to leave Paradise.

Next, we zip onward through the Vatican museums to Giuseppe Momo’s fascinating spiral ramp. Then we are off to explore St. Peter’s Basilica, a huge hall containing lots of sculpture and art. Besides some gawk-time for the grandeur of St. Peter’s Basilica itself, we hit pre-designated targets. We admire the stunning Michelangelo dome above, then Bernini’s baldacchino, a canopy of gilded bronze on spiral columns. We stand in awe before Michelangelo’s touching sculpture, La Pieta, which depicts Mary holding the dead Christ in her arms.

Vocabulary Focus

fast track (n phr) the quickest way to get somewhere or achieve a goal

nary a (idiom) without even one

waylay (v) [5wei5lei] to distract or be distracted by something so that one slows down or stops

gawk (v) [^C:k] to stare; to look at something or someone in a stupid or rude way

Specialized Terms

advance scout (n phr) 先遣侦察员 a person sent to get information about something

Vatican (n) 梵蒂冈 the main offices of the Catholic Church in Rome, which includes the building where the Pope lives

Paradise (n) 伊甸园，乐园 the Garden of Eden, the place where Adam and Eve lived according to the Bible

闪电游罗马

罗马不是一天建成的，但是你可以在3天内看到许多东西

许美鸾 译

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除了快以外，我们没有其它的方法游罗马。一辈子的时间也不足以品尝这个意大利著名城市所提供的艺术，以及赞赏它的古物。所以对我们来说，这是一场罗马3日闪电之旅。

幸运的是，我们有个先遣侦察员。我们的儿子伊森是建筑系学生，正在罗马读海外学期课程。他知道到观光景点的快捷方式，也能指引他的父母到他最喜爱而较少人去观光的罗马宝地。

梵蒂冈捷径

我们比参观梵蒂冈的大批群众来得机灵，在一两个小时内就能游完西斯汀礼拜堂和圣彼得大教堂。如何办到的呢？我们在博物馆开门之时就早早到达，买票后就飞快地走过那些呼唤着我们的艺术品，瞧也不瞧一眼，眼睛只留意着那些指引到西斯汀礼拜堂的印好的小标记。大部分的人走在充满宝藏的梵蒂冈博物馆内迂回的路线上都会分心，但我们绝不停留。

我们到达时礼拜堂几乎是空的。米开朗基罗的杰作完全让我们独享。我们坐在长椅上，头向后倾，快乐地看着天花板，上面浮现着肌肉发达的年轻男子们，以及上帝那根命令亚当和夏娃离开伊甸园的坚定的手指头。

接着，我们加快速度穿过梵蒂冈博物馆到达乔塞普·摩莫引人入胜的螺旋坡道。然后，我们前往探索圣彼得大教堂，那是一座容纳了许多雕塑和艺术品的建筑物。除了花些时间为圣彼得大教堂本身的伟大而目瞪口呆之外，我们去了教堂内所有预先规划要参观的目标。我们欣赏了米开朗基罗那令人叹为观止的圆顶，然后是贝尼尼的圣体伞，那是由螺旋柱子顶着用镀金青铜制作的顶篷。我们充满着敬畏站在米开朗基罗感人的小雕塑“圣殇像”之前，雕像呈现着圣母马利亚把死去的基督抱在怀里。