Roma

Blogger returns. We've been gone and I've been playing golf so this has to wait.

We left Firenze on Monday a.m. for Roma. By now we were world class train travelers. Oh Ya! This is Bobbe at the Termini. We caught the Euro Star, not the intracity train pictured in the background. The Star was sleek and very fast. Not a bullet train... but 100mph plus. Roma in two hours. Much of the trip was through tunnels. I think we just took a straight shot to Roma, hills be damned. We saw passenger cars along the way but they were out of sight really quick. It was great fun to be speeding along at that speed. I sat across from two Italian businessmen. I was jealous of their leather coats, but their carry on sandwich .... not so much.


Roma airport, Cops on Segways. These are really 'Rollers' -no flat feet here.

The Termini in Roma is sooooo busy. It actually has lots of stores. We discovered if you want to buy a washing machine or a refrigerator or a grill..... the drug store here has them for sale. I haven't a clue how you pick them up as the store is down in the basement under the trains....weird

We took this picture of Bobbe on the hotel balcony. It's real although it looks like I superimposed her. Just strange light I guess. The desk told us we were in room 323.... which of course is on the 5th floor..... with another hotel in between....well of course.
John on a balcony with a beer. You know this picture was staged because I don't like beer. That is a face of a man who wants a glass of Amarone.

A short walk from the hotel were the Spanish steps. Named that because they were built close to the Spanish embassy. Of course!!! Just a few crowds in Roma. Gelato at the top was welcomed.

Two blocks the other direction was Trevi Fountain. It truly is beautiful. And the women were all dancing in the fountain. Bobbe resisted but I do have that picture. There were lots of Romans with full body armour there so you could take your picture with them.... for 5 euro.

That's me facing the camera. Had to get up on a rim to be seen. This place sits in a small alley, but the crowds were never ending. By this time Bobbe was beginner fluent and we got around pretty well . We left the fountain and walked for miles...and miles.... did I say we were lost.... after miles of gumshoeing it Bobbe asked a policeman, in Italian , where the f... are we? Or something to that effect.

More Trevi fountain. It is just so over the top in art.
Next day the Metro took us to the Colosseum. Bobbe had never ridden a subway and I hadn't since New York in 1964. The first time I let her buy tickets from a surly agent but after that I bought them from a machine. Why is it you trust people more than an inanimate non surly machine. I even learned to buy two at a time, god I'm sophisticated.The lines here were very long. Bobbe saw a short line and the guide said if you join a tour you get to cut the line. The usual 45 min. wait was two minutes and we were in. It's just money. Bobbe was afraid people would be mad at us for cutting the line. They just followed us. We were at the colosseum watching people and having a drink when we spotted a 'street vendor' selling a scarf to a German tourist family. Some police pulled up, the 'vendor' split for parts unknown and the police followed. The Germans, I could tell by the black leather coats and high boots, just stood there. They hadn't paid yet and now they had no one to pay. What to do?? They had tried to pay, they had no place to return the "merchandise", what a conundrum? Finally they walked off, with the scarf.These are two guards somewhere... I don't know how they got in my story but they were very official looking. Below is the. ..ONLY... cat we saw in the Colosseum. We had expected to see hundreds of feral cats.... but just one little skinny cat. The stories must be all hype for tourists or cat lovers. Stupid is as stupid does.

2000 years old. It's amazing. Below are some flowering trees, haven't a clue what kind, in the Palatine gardens. Home of the wealthy Roman families. Talk about starter castles and McMansions today. These people did it up really big. Skip the slaves that died building this stuff but....
After a metro ride back to the hotel we rested, beers in hand and napped. Vacations are fun. We again ate at the only restaurant which served food before 11 p.m. How do you eat at that hour and then go to work the next day? We would go into a place about 6:30 or if we could wait 7:00 and hope to get food by 8:00. I lost 15# on this trip, mostly because I fell asleep before dinner. Just kidding.... about falling asleep that is.

The next, and last morning, we went to the Pantheon. It's the greatest Roman building not completely sacked by the Visigoths or whomever. My Roman history is a little lame and very forgotten. I'll do better next time. The building isn't much to look at from the outside but inside... a perfect semisphere dome. The height equals the diameter exactly, 43.5m. It's a big whoa!! We were the first ones through the gates and had the place to ourselves, quiet and wonderful.

The lamb above was on an altar in the Pantheon. Bobbe thought he had the sweetest smile. So we crawled up some monument, no one was looking, and took this picture. Sweet
Just outside and around a corner was this "Bernini's Elefantino" at the Basilica Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. I've shown some of this before in different context, so go back and read everything again you slackers.
This is a Michelangelo "Christ bearing the cross" in the church. His ... parts are covered... I was told this happened at some point in time because people insisted. Why just a few statues are covered I don't know. I didn't look under the cloth. I think a kilt would look better.

This last picture is "Trajan's Column". After we left the Pantheon we took a turn left instead of right, I was adventurous and there it was. About 50 feet high and chiseled from bottom to top. I'm sure it tells a story about the gods and the glories of the emperor. It was magnificent.

We checked out of the hotel and took the sub to Termini, from there, the Leonardo Express to a hotel at the airport. We left the next morning at 6 a.m. for home. We left the green of a March Roma for the brown of a March Denver and the white of Steamboat Springs. We also left the crowds for the open spaces and the dinginess of cities for the clean skies of Colorado.

We will return to Italy again, sooner than later, for some unknown reason, Bobbe wants to learn Italian and I want to go there also. The art, the history, the culture, the foods, the wines, the leather coats (don't get me started ), the tomato/ mozzarella sandwiches, the beautiful women and handsome men ( like us )

Marcello & Barbara