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Our room
Sketches from Dante's Divine Comedy over the bed. After a very long flight, without a hoped for business class upgrade, and a delay in Frankfurt - where airport business seems to primarily happen on buses and the tarmac, we finally arrive in ROMA. Because of the delay, our pick-up from the B & B is nowhere to be seen. Buff tries a quick cell call and gets "pronto?" "pronto?" "pronto?" on the other end of the line. He tells me "I don't think he can hear me." Little did we know, that's how phones are answered in Italy. Eventually it all got straightened out and a very nice gentleman, Eduardo, drove us, - very quickly I must say! - to Ancient Romance, our not quite appropriately named lodgings. 30 years isn't ancient is it? Of course that's just Buff & I, most everything in Roma IS ancient!
We were glad before we even left the airport that we had followed advice given to us to "NOT DRIVE IN ROME!" Whoaee doggers! We make it in one piece! Beautiful building, our room is five stories up, thank heaven for the 'lift'. Only a few hundred yards from the Vatican, what views we will have. But for now, bleary eyed
First view
Looking toward Vatican City, only a few hundred yards away. and jetlagged, we check in, listen to lots of instructions from Massimo, our new best friend and promptly collaspe in our room 'Divine Comedy', only to awaken in the middle of the night for food. The self-serve breakfast area worked fine. Yogurts, fruit, milk and biscuits. Back to sleep. Roma awaits.
Awake and ready to go we head for the Metro and Piazza del Popolo, not a famous landmark, but I'm reading 'Eat, Pray, Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert and she mentions a church there with some wonderful paintings by Caravaggio depicting the martyrdom of Saint Peter and the conversion of Saint Paul. Unfortunately, the church was not open, but the bronze doors were beautiful and depicted scenes from the life of Christ. My fascination with door 'knockers' began here in the Piazza, and continued throughout the trip. Buff & I also had a very brief tangle with the Italia Polizia, that was complicated due to language issues. You can tell we weren't too emotionally scarred, and were soon released and on the way to Piazza Di Spagna E Scalinata Di Trinita Dei Monti, better known as The Spanish Steps (for obvious reasons). What a fascinating place for meeting and
Vespas on the street below
Vespa is wasp in Italian. They are EVERYWHERE!!!!!!! watching people. And it really wasn't that hard to count the 138 steps, or was it? I didn't get the 'count' correct. This tourist stuff is hard work. We need gelato! Good thing there is a gelateria right next to our door... Let's go home.
Next day we had planned to see the Vatican (and Sistine Chapel) with a tour group. Rain wasn't going to stop us and a nice man sold us an umbrella as soon as we stepped out from our door. Never mind that it turned inside out in the slightest puff of a wind, we loved it, our Italia umbrello! Our tour guide was from Canada, and very knowledgable. He kept telling us we would be underwhelmed by the Sistine Chapel. It's so cramped in the actual chapel, that the tours use an outdoor courtyard with stations set up with photos of the paintings to explain everything to their groups. No pictures can be taken inside the chapel anyway, but tell that to the people that took them and then were escorted out by security. It was surreal in there. Learned a lot from our guide, and it's still awesome to stand inside the chapel
and realize where you are and who has been there before you and what has happened there. St. Peter's Basilica is awesome (I need to think of some other descriptive words) and the Piazza has it's own surprise thanks to Bernini's colonnade. Time for more gelato, I think this is the time that Buff brought it up to me after I had a nap : )
Next day, the Pantheon. It, like so many of the places we visited had scaffolding up as work is ongoing due to the age of the buildings. Absolutely mind boggling, the engineering of this building back in the early second century. We also went to Trevi Fountain, and yes tossed coins into it with our wishes, so I guess we will be returning to Roma soma daya. Had one of our favorite meals after our visit to the fountain, then went back to see it at night. There was a bride and groom having photos taken there. Can you imagine? Beautiful! No Metro goes to the ancient part of the city so we were on bus and it was late...ended up taking bus to termini station and catching Metro back home. No gelato
today, wahhh...
Last day to explore, we did Colosseo, that includes Arco Di Constantino, walking along the Circo Massimo and then
had to see the Bocca della Verita (Mouth of Truth) in an out of the way church behind the Palatino Hill, one of Rome's seven hills. You may remember the mouth of truth from the movie "Roman Holiday" with Audrey Hepburn & Gregory Peck. If you haven't seen it, and like oldies, but goodies, it's worth watching. Needed gelato twice today to make up for yesterday. On to Toscana tomorrow in a rental car...
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otis
non-member comment
always carry donuts to distract police when encountered.. {: throw a donut and run the other direction