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Published: November 5th 2006
Circo Massimo
Great condo's here!Back in Roma on Monday, 23 Ottobre, we chose to buy tickets for one of the hop on-hop off buses. These are pretty good values as the tickets are good for 24 hours. The plan is to cover everything to San Pietro on the bus and then come back around after to hop off and see the sights missed before the Vatican. We were able to cover a lot of real estate and save our feet. We did a drive by at Circus Maximus, which is now a place for joggers; not a single chariot in sight. Behind it is the other side of the "condo's" overlooking Foro Romano.
We first hopped off in the morning at the Vatican, awed by the size of the piazza and St. Peter's Basilica. The line to enter St. Peters almost covered the circumfrence of the Piazza. However, it only took 30 minutes to get in and was worth the wait. When Pat was here in 1972, some nut-case had just taken his hammer to Michelanglo's Pieta and it was behind a plywood wall. Since then, it has been repaired and is secure behind plexiglas. It's amazing the incredible work Michelangelo accomplished with this
Circo Massimo due
This gives some perspective of the size of this place. The ruins of the building and a guard tower (built much later) are in front. piece at the age of 25. Pat just stood there, drinking it in as if to make up for the last time too. It seems like every section of wall is covered by a monument to one of the popes. All the popes are entombed in the Basilica, a tour we declined to stand in line for. The only pope to have his name inlaid in the floor, is at the entrance and it's John XXIII. His wall monument is like a metal door (big), but doesn't scream, "Look at me!" like some of the other monuments in the basilica. Michelangelo also did the duomo for the basilica, patterning it after the Pantheon.
Back on the bus, we were going to finish the bus tour round the city, then come back to check out other places of interest. But, we were hungry, so we hopped off near the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain areas and had lunch. By the time we ate and walked to the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain, it was 4pm, we were exhausted, crabby, and sick of all the tourist crowds. We didn't get to a lot of the sights, including the Spanish Steps area with all
the good shopping. Sorry, no Christmas presents. Besides we had a bunch of packing to do to be able to leave at 3am tomorrow. So, we caught the tour bus back to the Stazione Termini, and went to the hotel.
We packed for the trip home and tried to sleep. Pat got about an hour of sleep, Ann a little more. Our taxi arrived at 3:00 AM on the 24th for the journey home. Roma is extremely beautiful at 3:00 AM. There is no traffic or people. Our driver took us past several of the sights we had visited the previous day. The lights and serene quiet were awesome, especially in the Vatican. St. Peter's was just there, all by itself, without any people.
The plane trip home was basically uneventful. That is until the destination is the United States. We had forgotten the hydrophobia of the US, and purchased water before getting on the plane in Amsterdam. Even though they were unopened and we could produce a receipt, it was a no go. What a stark difference to the trip FROM the US. Neither the Netherlands nor Italy is concerned about water on a plane. Only the
Basilica di San Pietro due
The Michelangelo designed Duomo US. It shouldn't be so hard to remain hydrated! The lemons Domineco insisted we take home with us met the US Customs and Immigration waste system in Chicago, unfortunately.
We arrived home in Minneapolis about 5:30 PM on the 24th. This is best part of traveling: sleeping in our own bed and showering in our own shower when we get home.
The blog may change a little over the next couple of weeks as we add more photos and tweak it a little. Thanks for joining us. We hope you enjoyed traveling with us.
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Lynn Cox
non-member comment
So impressive
Wow--I'm so impressed at your spirit of adventure traveling around with Italian as a second language. You sure have covered a lot of territory on this trip. We'd love to hear more about it once you get your feet planted back on the ground in MN. Want to come over for dessert or dinner or meet somewhere betrween your home and ours? Our countdown is 6 weeks until we leave. We have flight connections from Mpls- Newark-Milan-Venice (all on one FF ticket). Keep in touch. Lynn