The Eternal City

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We left Florence this morning and headed for Rome. I found out this morning that poor Cassie who had been suffering from severe stomach issues for the duration of the trip would be leaving early. Once we arrive in Rome, she would be heading out to the airport to fly home to Australia. I guess she held out for as long as she could. She still had a few more weeks of travelling left as she was supposed to take a cruise through the Greek islands once our tour finished up in Athens. Before Rome, we made a quick stop in the city of Modena. This town is famous for being the home of Ferrari. We had about an hour here to grab a bite to eat and if interested, check out the Ferrari museum and factory store. Having absolutely no interest in Ferraris, I decided to just go straight to lunch since our breakfast this morning was mediocre at best. I ended up having a neopolitan style pizza with sausage which turned out to be the best pizza I had in Italy. This stop seemed to be a complete waste of time. They could have at least stopped at a city that was more interesting.

We arrived in Rome at about 2pm. The hotel was outside the city center but not as far as I had thought we would be. We were really only a short bus ride away from St. Peter's Square. We had a few hours to relax before meeting up again to take an evening walking tour of central Rome. Since tour buses were not allowed in the city center, we would be doing most of our traveling in Rome aboard public transportation. Thank god, I would give anything at this point not to be on that damn bus ever again. Our evening in Rome started out at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican. Since we were coming here early tomorrow morning, we simply did a walk through and took a few photos. We next walked over to the Spanish Steps. Having already been to the Spanish Steps on a previous trip, I knew it was nothing special so I used this time to try and locate a bathroom as I had to pee really bad. Once done using the facilities, we just sat around the steps people watching and resting. I'm not sure home many locals use this spot for a meeting place. It seemed that primarily only tourists frequented this place. Moving on, it was only a short walk to the Trevi Fountain. Again, this spot was overrun by tourists but it didn't really bother me as this fountain is probably the most beautiful fountain I have ever seen. In Roman standards, this fountain was relatively new, only about 150 years old! We did the obligatory three coins over the shoulder thing. One for luck, two for love, and three for returning to Rome. While waiting for everyone to finish up taking their photos and throwing their coins in the fountain, Mar and I decided to cool down by getting what else... another gelato! The next stop on the walking tour was the Pantheon. The Pantheon was one of the oldest structures in all of Europe, an amazing piece of architecture of it's time. Entering the Pantheon was an amazing experience. At the top of the dome was a huge hole that let in a ray of sunlight that give the place a very spiritual feel. Not being spiritual at all, I just thought it looked really cool. Inside lay the tombs of some very famous Italians like Gallileo and Michelangelo. After the Pantheon, it was a short walk to the Piazza Navona for dinner. This is Rome's most famous and most crowded piazza. It's made famous by Bernini's Fountain of Four Rivers and egyptian obelisk in the center of the piazza as well as the church of St. Agnes in Agony. It was a very bustling place this evening filled with tourists and merchants selling their wares in the outdoor market. For dinner, we all as a group went to a restaurant on a side-street just off the main square. We had all spread out over 4-5 tables and I sat with the Aussie Gossip Crew. I tried the Seafood Linguine which was just mediocre. Restaurant food in places heavily trafficked by tourists tends to usually be very sub-par. Since they're not worried about turning you into a repeat customer, they give sub-par food and service. After having another gelato after dinner, we made our way back to the coach for a quick drive around Rome at night. We drove by the Colliseum but most amazing to me was the Vittorio Emanuele Monument. This place looked absolutely awesome all lit up at night. I definetly want to come back to this place, if anything just to snap a few photos of it at night. We made it back at the hotel at around 11pm. No big plans were in the works for tonight. A few in the group went out but it was a long travel day so I just called it a night.

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