Do as the Romans do

I'm pretty sure many people I know (which isn't all that much) are probably asking themselves "What's happened to Chris....he sort of dropped off the face of the Earth"

Well I'm still on Earth, just at a different location: Italy.

I love Italy. Perhaps, being that it's my ethnic background, I am a little biased in my opinion. However, all these tourists can't be wrong.

Mentioning tourists was quite deliberate as it segways into what I really wanted to talk about: All tourists should rot in some interesting form.

Now some people are going to think that's a little harsh. Hear me out.

First lets address the abvious point first: I know some will say "Aren't you a tourist?" The answer is "No". I'm more of a native than anything else. I didn't travel to see the typical tourist sites and fall victim to local tourist traps. Now if I was visiting Japan or some other country, one could argue my status as tourist. I'd still have to disagree on grounds that I don't act like a tourist, which brings me to my second point: Why the hell do tourist act like such asses?

They trash the streets, constantly ram and jab and bump into people (God forbid they walk a straight line and look where the hell they're going), they have no respect for places of worship, and no respect for people running the facilities they are graciously let in to take pictures of (for example, not being dressed appropriately for church or using flash when specifically almost yelled at to not use it). Also, just the attitude they have in general is unpleasant and obnoxious.

The beauty of it all is that I'mnot even talking about a specific group of tourists from a specific country. This seems to be a universal thing.

Another thing that urks me is that cities here cater WAY too much to tourists. I'm not going to pay the thieving businesses for something I can get at 1/8 of the price somewhere else.

That's why I prefe cities that aren't as huge and as much a tourist magnet like Rome.

Rome is beautiful though and there's so much to see. I any of you readers have never been, please check it out, and, for the love of God, don't be one of those tourists I mentioned ;P