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 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 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 thе jungle, I could hardly stand to see 'em

Yes, it surе 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 the big High Roller

I left Rome, and landed in Brussels

On 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

Had to be held down by big police

Someday, everything is gonna be different

When I write my masterpiece