Touring the ancient wonders...

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Geo: 41.8955, 12.4823

We decided to sleep in this morning and help Karen get over jet lag and I was just tired! I got up about 9 ish, had breakfast, showered, added photos to Thursday's blog, etc... We then got out of the apt around 12 ish... bought our Roma Passes on the way to the Colosseum, walked past A LOT of people standing in the line to buy a ticket, probably would have just given up if we had had to do that! Bought the audio guide and enjoyed relearning about the Colosseum! It's all new again after 50!!! ;-)
We then made our way over to the Forum and Palatine Hill, we got there at 4 it closes at 6:15- 6:30 so we thought we'd just have enough time if we didn't dawdle. Unfortunately, it was too late to rent the audio guide! so we just had to read the signs and didn't get nearly the information that we could have, as it was we barely got through the entire place and I know if we had had the audio guide we never would have as we would have wanted to listen to everything.

Out the gates at 6:30 and were pretty tired so decided to take the metro/subway to the Trevi Fountain area as we planned on eating at da Baffettos famous pizza place near Piazza Navona, got on Line B then transferred at Termini to Line A then off at the Barberini stop, not sure we saved many steps but we got to enjoy Rome's subway during the after work crowd and get close and personal with lots of strangers! Made it to the restaurant, stood outside in line for probably 15 minutes and then were seated upstairs, you don't get a "private" table there you just eat "family" style altogether with whoever else may be there.

After this grabbed a few groceries and planned on having a gelato but didn't have any extra hands so were going to drop things off at the apt and go out but decided at 10 pm it wasn't best to eat gelato, we'll save that for tomorrow. We were extremely prepared for rain today, had my light wool pullover on and my raincoat, umbrella in the purse along with my new rain poncho, beautiful day, nice and warm! Oh well, maybe it will rain tomorrow as forecasted....

Going to let Karen blog now, enjoy!
Fit bit: 21,643 which is 9.32 miles
A domani
Wendy

If you ever want to come to Italy, you really must ask Wendy to be your travel guide! She has made this trip absolutely wonderful because of her knowledge of the city and of its history. The sights we are seeing are wonderful in and of themselves, but seeing them through her eyes is amazing!

Wendy and I have been trying and trying to figure out how to get the photos off my phone and onto her iPad to post on this blog, but so far every attempt has met with failure. I have been able to post at least one to my Facebook page, though, so if you want to see pictures, I'll try to put some there.

I have been having a lot of fun with Italian food. I am determined to be adventurous and try things a little on the wild side for me. Friday night I had pasta and mussels with an amazing unknown cheese sprinkled on top. Yum! Tonight we went to THE pizza place in all of Italy, and I ordered pizza that had zucchini, eggplant, and flowers on it. That was fun! Can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

I am really enjoying learning new things. Today I learned that one of the ways they date ancient buildings is by looking for dates that are stamped into the bricks that are buried in the walls. They can get an exact date (a "known age" for my General Science students!) on something more than 2,000 years old. How cool is that?

Wendy mentioned "enjoying" Rome's subway....she is a very brave person. Enjoying isn't quite the word I would use. She made me promise when we were half way through that I wouldn't bolt on her and leave the subway! I had to keep telling myself over and over that it's okay to be speeding through deep, dark, underground tunnels where only moles should be, squished, body part by body part against 100 people into a tin can that only has room for 50. Breathe! Oh, how happy was I when I saw the sky again! That's ok, tomorrow I'm going to make her taste a pomegranate!

Arrivederci!
Karen 😊

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Photos

Colosseum
floor reconstruction

The oldest remnants of archeo. on Palantine
The original huts from the 750 BC era, where "Romulus" settled so long ago...

The cool pine trees you see everywhere
On top of the Palatine Hill

Comments

[Kath]

Amazing pictures of these sights/sites, glad you are getting to see so many of them. Also very nice that the sun came out for you both today, looks much more pleasant. If you can do the metro at rush hour, you can definitely try pomegranate
s...I love them. Have fun!

[Tony]

Looks like you are having a good time. Lots of interesting sights. Be safe. Love you. Tony

[Adrienne]

This post made me laugh. Love the stuff about the subway. I'm sure that smelled fantastic. :) I hope you both enjoyed a pomegranate, delizioso(sp?)!

[Jim]

Hi ladies. First, I want Karen to know I feel for her. Subways are not my "thing" either. If you really want to get even make Wendy sleep in a tent some day. It sounds like it's an amazing time. I too have enjoyed Wendy's tour guide ab
ilities. She's awesome in a lot of ways. Hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow.(today for you). Love you Wendy...be safe.

[Kath]

Hi again, Wendy. Hope it's not impertinent to ask if the metro rides get you steps on your fitbit. I know you and Karen are walking awesome numbers of steps, but I was just curious if the motion adds to it. I have buzzed my 10,000 while dri
ving my parents' SUV, and think Dan has noticed it even in his Subaru on our roads. So (of course) not from envy but just out of genuine curiosity, I would be interested to see what you find. ;) Am praying for safety and many delightful discoveries for you and Karen.Love, Kath

[wendy2007]

Hi Kathy, hmm good question, I have a feeling it didn't count them as the 10,000 vibration it makes was quite a while before we finished... not sure how to find out this one, but my thought is if it did count some steps it wasn't many as th
ere wasn't too much of any kind of moving!Wendy

[wendy2007]

Just thought of something that may relate to the fit bit question, when I ride my bike it's like I'm siting on the couch, so I guess I would say no, that it probably didn't count the steps, plus if it did, it would have probably been much m
ore than was counted. My best guess!

[Kath]

Hi Wendy, I have read the fitbit sometimes adds steps if there is vibration or bumpiness, even if you aren't walking or moving your arms...that's why I asked. Dan puts his in his pocket, I think, when he is riding his bike, then he gets it
to actually count some of it as steps. You could glance at it when you get on the metro and when you get off and see if there is a difference (if you can actually move your arms)...no big deal, just curious. I wonder if Dropbox would help you get Karen's photos to your iPad. Probably easiest for her to download the free app, make a folder for the photos she wants to share, then send you the folder link and you can download them. My phone automatically sends to a Camera Upload file in Dropbox, but if you don't have enough Dropbox storage for that, better to just manually click on a photo and the choice to upload to Dropbox will be there. You could both get Dropbox, but think if you haven't used it, it is easier just to have her get the app and send you the link. Hope it works for you! Love, Kath http://www.pcworld.com/article/2032507/the-simple-practical-way-to-share-a-dropbox-folder.html

[Rachel]

Wow, this is soooo beautiful! I can't wait to go see it myself someday!

[wendy2007]

Hi Rachel! So good to hear from you, thanks for your comments. I'm sure you can see this yourself someday, we'll have to have lunch and have a good travel talk!