The eternal city
Trip Start
Aug 29, 2008
1
17
31
Trip End
Sep 20, 2008
Rome,
Lazio,
Italy
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Rome is gritty, busy, but eternal too - like one giant masterpiece of
artistic splendor. We come to our first great monument - the piazza of
Venice. Later we learn that there are more piazzas in Rome than
pizzas! Still it has the great pillars that you expect to see here and
is rather grand.
We next head for thf trevi fountain - a rather famous one in Rome, but
it seems Rome sleeps in so it's not quite open yet. So we walk up to
the Spanish steps - which us yet another major area for the tourists,
but breathtaking as well. Another fountain and a church to see here.
Quite nice! Tons of really upscale shopping in this section as well.
We browse a bit and get some breakfast.
Next we head back to the termini station to seek out our hotel. It
seems it is only a couple of blocks away. At first we are very unsure
of it - the elevator looks like something out of doctor who!!! The guy
at the desk is possibly the most laid back guy ever - very much the
Italian! He was great though and really helped us out.
After a shower, we were ready for more siteseeing. We head for ancient
Rome this time. We walked by the forum, where great pillars of rock
still stand as a reminder of a much greater time. There are ancient
things everywhere you look so it's really hard to describe them all!
In any case, we eventually make it to the coliseum! It is so much more
huge than you could ever imagine! And it has been there for over 2000
years! Stunning. It costs a bit, but you have to see it, right? The
inside is amazing as well, especidlly if you stop to think of all the
history that sits in front of you.
After all these sites, we didn't have too much left but we still
walked a good bit. We made it back to the trevi fountain where it was
now wall to wall people! Rome is truly a busy place.
Now that we could barely walk we went back to the hotel for a good rest.
