When I Paint My Masterpiece

Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble

Ancient footprints are everywhere

You can almost think that you're seeing 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 wasting time

Oh, those mighty kings of the jungle

I could hardly stand to see them

Yes, it sure has been a long, hard climb

Train wheels running through the back of my memory

When I ran on the hilltop following a pack of wild geese

Someday, everything is going to be smooth like a rhapsody

When I paint my masterpiece

Sailing around the world in a dirty gondola

Oh, to be back in the land of Coca-Cola!

I left Rome and landed in Brussels

In a plane ride so bumpy that I almost cried

Clergymen in uniform and young girls pulling 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 going to be different

When I paint my masterpiece