To understand why I loved the day in Rome so much, you might need to understand how bad the night before was. I think this was one of the stormy nights. The ship rocking back and forth was okay -- even when a bit extreme -- but the noises that went with it were frustrating. The room sounded like it was pulling apart. The mattress creaked (creak, creak, creak -- pause -- creak, creak, creak), the walls clicked and groaned, the hangers and anything loose banged or rolled. It made sleep hard. Derek had gotten hit hard with a cold and while I was not sleeping I was worried that I would have to find a friend to go to Rome with since Derek might not be well enough. Then, morning came, and Derek had miraculously slept better than the night before and felt he could handle the day. Hooray! To top it off, when we got to Rome, we found friends who welcomed us into their group and who were fun, and kind. Derek was happy, and our friends helped us have an adventure and helped us to laugh. The picture above is the Spanish Steps. I'm afraid I don't know the significance of the Spanish Steps but they were our first stop since they were close to the Piazza Barberini where the bus dropped us off. (The ship docked in Civitavecchia, Italy and Rome is an hour and a half to two hours away).
Our next stop (and by stop I mean we would pause in our walking long enough to admire and take pictures)was the Trevi Fountain (above). It is the biggest fountain in the world and was still filling up when we got there. It was crowded like the rest of Rome -- and this was the off season!
These are some ruins at the edge of The Forum. We were informed by someone with a tour guide that this particular spot was Caesar's Palace.
The Coliseum and the Forum are next to each other. The Forum is huge and used to be free to walk around in -- but now it costs money and is, I believe, the same line that you get in to see the inside of the Coliseum. We just did our best at peeking from outside. We didn't have a spare two hours. It was lunch time and we were hungry and we still wanted to see the Vatican. We decided to take the subway to the Vatican (which is on the other side of Rome).
These are some of the friends we were with. There were two couples from home and one couple from the Dominican Republic. They all speak Spanish and the couple from the DR speak almost no English. Derek and I ended up sitting with the couple from the DR at lunch. Not much conversation could take place -- but occasionally one of our other friends would turn around and translate for us. The subway ride to get to where we were going to eat was a real adventure. The car (train?)we were getting in was very full. The other three couples got on and there was really no more room -- but seeing that we were about to be left behind the man in the yellow shirt shoved everyone and we barely squished in. I've never seen such a packed car but I was impressed at everyones patience with being squished like sardines. Fortunately that leg of our journey wasn't long and the next subway car thing was not as full. (You can tell I'm not a subway expert!)Our morning included a bus ride, walking, site seeing, picture taking, talking, laughing, and a squishy subway ride with the promise of lunch and more things to see still ahead.
1 comment:
Here's what I remember about the Spanish steps...there was a poet (I can't remember who, maybe Keats?) who lived, if you're staring at your picture, at the bottom of the steps, just to the right. He wasn't Italian, but if you were a poet, wouldn't you want to live in Rome? So, did you make a wish and throw a coin in Trevi fountain? What a fun trip. I love seeing the pictures and hearing the story.
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