oh, the streets of rome are filled with rubble, ancient footprints are everywhere you can almost think that you're seein' double on a cold, dark night on the spanish stairs got to hurry on back to my hotel room, where i've got me a date with botticelli's niece she promised that she'd be right there with me when i paint my masterpiece oh, the hours I've spent inside the coliseum, dodging lions and wastin' time oh, those mighty kings of the jungle, i could hardly stand to see 'em, yes, it sure has been a long, hard climb train wheels runnin' through the back of my memory, when i ran on the hilltop following a pack of wild geese someday, everything is gonna be smooth like a rhapsody when i paint my masterpiece sailin' 'round the world in a dirty gondola. oh, to be back in the land of coca-cola! i left rome and landed in brussels, on a plane ride so bumpy that i almost cried clergymen in uniform and young girls pullin' muscles, everyone was there to greet me when i stepped inside newspapermen eating candy when i had to be held down by big police someday, everything is gonna be diff'rent when i paint my masterpiece