While Rome is full of great trattorias, we recommend the Trattoria Varrone, a wonderful source for authentic Italian chow and this is our pick for the best Trattoria in Rome.

The goofy Gladiators at the Coliseum

If you don't have enough trouble from pickpockets and tinkers, now they have these extortionist gladiators at the Coliseum.  If you even point a camera in their direction they will approach you, demanding as much as $100 Euros from easily intimidated tourists, (according to my guidebook).

The Pope and St. Peters

When in Rome, it’s always great fun to visit the Vatican.

Vatican City is huge, and it’s always crowded with people, but it is spectacular, whatever religion you may be:

Even after the Christmas Mass ugliness with the crazy lady, St Peter is open, and winter is s great time to visit Rome because there are no crowds, and the weather is nice and warm.

Years ago, you could meet the Pope in-person during a weekly Mass, but they have stopped this practice and you can only see His Holiness on Sundays. If you visit on Sunday, stay until noon, when the pope appears in his apartment window and blesses the crowd:

The blessing was in Latin, so I did not understand much, but it never hurts to get blessed by a Pope.

The Wolds's most expensive salad dressing

I can understand how a 50 year-old Cognac or a 50 year old whiskey is expensive, after being aged all those years in a charred oak barrel, but now we see aged salad dressing!

It seems like anything that you age for 50 years gets pricey, even if it’s only balsamic vinegar.

I saw this in a store window in Europe, and this has got to be the most expensive salad dressing in the world, about $250 for a pint of 50 year-old balsamic vinegar!

For the less stupid, you can get the 30 year-old salad dressing for only about $80, and seeing these prices makes me wish I had started aging stuff when I was younger.