Albergo Ligure Rome

... terrazzo. The Palazzos of the wealthy are astounding constructions, many of them now housing the museums noted above, some converted to public use like the American Embassy in Palazzo Margherita and the French Embassy in Palazzo Farnese. The Barberini Palace is a masterwork of the Renaissance by Bernini and Borromini who were pitted against each other to construct the most elaborate of the papal residences. 400 years later, the ...

... short it wasn't to be. But we headed out on time to Piazza Sanra Maria which was a nice square with the first Church for Mary in Rome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Mar ia_in_Trastevere). Vey nice indeed. Few (hundred) photos later, we headed for tea at a nearby cafe. Then it rained, and then to about 10 Bangladeshis came out of nowhere with umbrellas. I was told by a friend that people in Rome do not like ...

... it? Hell yes. The David is incredible, you will not forget the first time you see it in real life. Your not to meant to take pictures, but I have a few anyway, it still does it no justice. Rome is of course the main city of Italy and most of you know various parts of its history so I wont bother with it. The coliseum was awesome, didn't manage to find Rusty though. The Parthenon was quite spectacular, Raphael is buried there, the Roman Forum lays in ruins but is still quite amazing ...

... the lira for the most part, which also dates me. Now the line was about an hour long and the price to get in was at least 5x as much. And the Forum? Last time we went in for free, it was sortof just a park you could walk through. Now my jaw literally dropped when I saw the line to get in the Roman Forum went all the way to the coluseum. Nuts. And it wasn't even high season. We had amazing luck with Vatican City however. This is usually the nighmare everyone talks about and ...

... as tourists insist on talking. For those of you who had the honor to stand next to me in choir you will know that this is my calling in life and I have lots of practice :) We then enjoyed.... you guessed it PIZZA and a rousing discussion of religion. My limited Catholic skills and knowledge were tested to the max :) After lunch we toured St. Peters, which was cool but not my favorite church int eh world by far. I enjoyed the artisitic quality but have trouble seeing these ...

... the first time and definitely not for the last - It is so amazing inside. We stopped in at a store we have been to a couple times in the past - the store with all the canvas art reproductions - we added two more to the collection and are thinking about a couple others - (Susan...do you still want the one we have in our Home Theatre room in Costa Rica? Let me know - we leave Rome on the 16th of October). We headed back to our area around 8 p.m. and then walked back up to the ...

... the next day at 8am wasn't so fun. But I wasn't about to sacrifice the remaining normality from my former life at home. Recently my roommate and I found this cool live music place that I really like a lot. It's technically a blues club but I've only heard rock there. Italian with many classic rock covers which is really fun. It's also called "Big Mammas" and that alone is enough to go there. It's located in an area called Trastevre, which kind of reminds me of SoHo in terms ...

... nearby Ercolano (also hit by the volcano and with even-better preserved ruins) for Vesuvius. Halfway up the mountain though we stopped to buy tickets?Eand, more importantly, also let the ticket-seller try and flog his tourist souvenirs to us. It was the most blatant tourist rip-off we'd seen so far. Still, it didn't stop those that obviously came down in the last lava shower from being duped. An old English couple in front ...

... station and would make our journey to the Airport quick and easy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=w59Nn-I6cKE We had dinner and called it a night very early to prepare for the extremely long day tomorrow.

... with the sunny ones empty and the shady ones thronged! We continue to the Campo dei Fiore, and take lunch at a lively street cafe (on the sunny side). The spinach calzone is out of this world! After lunch we continue our walk and come upon the Pantheon. This is the best preserved major Roman building to be found anywhere, saved because it was turned into a Christian Basilica. Caught by the enigmatic and annoying opening times of public places, we ...