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Published: September 4th 2007
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Colloseum
"I can't believe I'm at the Colloseum!" This jetlag thing is allowing me time in the middle of the night to update the travelblog from our travel journals....don't know if that's a good thing or not!
We arrived in Rome in the middle of the afternoon on Thursday, August 23rd to overcast skies but very warm temperatures - a sign of things to come! We opted to take a cab to Francesca's apartment, as I wasn't quite ready to look for the 90 express bus that we would later find drops you off a block away from the apartment and would become our main mode of transportation. Thank heavens for Google maps, as I had printed out a map of the location of the apartment, and I was able to just hand it to the cab driver and Voila...we were soon letting ourselves in and turning on the water and shopping at the local market for meals for the next few days. I think Nolan was really missing Elisabeth's wonderful Swedish cooking, so we opted to have breakfast and dinner at the apartment each day, finding something for lunch while sightseeing each day.
We woke Friday morning to clear skies, high humidity, and very warm temperatures.
shade
Sitting for a moment in some much needed shade This would be the first of three days of temperatures ranging between 37 and 42 degrees C....that's upper 90's low 100's F. Great weather for outdoor sightseeing with hundreds of people! We found the 90 bus that took us directly to Termini where we then connected with the Metro B that took us to the Colosseum. Nolan was very excited to be here, as Milena had given him a kit to build a model of it last year, so he understood a lot about the building, but now the history and magnificance of the scale really clicked for him. Following our time at the Colosseum, we wandered up toward the Palatine Hill, then down through the Forum. It was so cool to sit with Nolan and talk about the history of the Roman Empire (reading from one of the books I brought, not from memory!) and understanding the expanse of history that we were seeing in front of us. We then ventured up to the Capitoline Hill and had yet another gelato at the cafe on top of the Victor Emmanuel Monument. So many people were soaking their tired hot feet in the fountain at the base of the building,
nolans colloseum
Nolan took this from the Capitoline Hill so we joined in....relief! We wandered back to the Metro station and headed home for much needed showers and rest from the heat.
On Saturday, we again ventured on the 90 bus and the Metro to the Vatican, where we spent a great deal of time sitting in the shade around Piazza San Pietro, waiting until the best time to get in line in the hot sun to go through security before entering the Basilica. Once inside, we were tempted to stay all day in the beautiful (and cool) space, but Nolan was spurred on by our experience in Florence, and was ready to climb to the top of the cupola. At least at St. Peter's, there is an elevator that eliminates all but 320 of the 537 steps to the top! It was stunning, and I'm so glad we did it. Al had climbed to the top in 1999, but me being 5 months pregnant at the time, opted out. Afterwards, we treated ourselves to more gelato before heading over to the Vatican museums....mistake! Little did we know (not in our travel book) that this happened to be the one day of the month that they closed early....and
forum
Every once in a while we found a nice person to take our photo together the following day was going to be the one free day of the month. So, Nolan will have to come back to Rome to see the Sistine Chapel. Once again, hot and tired, we headed home.
Sunday was our day to take in "everything else". We began with the Spanish Steps, which were overrun by tourists and people selling things, so we headed to the top, and had a wonderful surprise when we stepped into the church at the top of the steps...Trinita del Monti. Since it was Sunday, and we were missing our chuch friends back in Portland, we sat for a while in the quiet and had our own little chuch morning. Nolan took some beautiful photos here. We then headed west toward Piazza Navona, but made a few stops at the Ferrari store and a few other shops. We stopped first at the Pantheon, which is one of my favorite approaches....you come out of these narrow winding streets to an intimate open space, the Piazza Della Rotonda, and there it is. It takes your breath away, both from the outside and the inside. After more gelato, we made our way to Piazza Navona, and I have
relief
The one fountain we found where we could cool off to admit disappointment....the fountains were under repair and the entire piazza was overrun with tourists and people selling purses, sunglasses, scarves and fans...tourist trap stuff. We opted to find a restaurant in the shade and sit back away from the masses and have a nice lunch. After lunch we made our way to Trevi Fountain, where we each tossed our coin in and made a wish. Nolan admitted his wish was to be there with Milena. Next time! We were then so hot and so tired that we headed back to the apartment, did some laundry and prepared for our trip south the next day for our stay in Rotonda with Milena and Francesca's family.
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