Rome

Sept 29th
Rome

I had my second visit to Rome today, and let me say, it was great! I did the tour “Rome on your own”, which like Florence, got me a free ride into the city and 6 hours of exploring. I met up with a few friends in the start, but after a couple hours, ended up leaving most of them behind because their pace wasn’t quite where mine was. I enjoy seeing as much of the city as I can, even if it means I’m practically running from landmark to landmark. Pieter was able to keep up with me though, and we were able to see just about everything we had hoped to once free of the original group of five. The pics will tell a lot about where we were, but I’ll list some hignlights. Today was some sort of “Roman holiday”, so entrance fees were free!! This doesn’t mean though that the lines were gone however, and anything that required a long wait was traded to see more architecture. Aside from getting dropped off at the Vatican, we got into the St. Angelo Castle and National Museum, Pantheon, Trevi fountain, S. Maria Maggiore Basilica, the Collosseum, and Forum, among others. It was really great though with the holiday, because we got into the Colloseum for free and were able to spend an hour or so just being blown away by the unbelievable structure. Following that stop and a run by the Forum, we ran southwest (I think) to some pyramid and a completely different part of town. Luckily, we timed everything really well and were able to get back to the meeting point just in time to catch the bus without being officially late. We ran back through this great neighborhood, a really hip part of town with cool shops and not so much overwhelming history. And hence why I run, now I’ve found out about this place and would really like to go back and check it out more in depth some other time. I got a couple espressos while I was there – it’s an Italian thing. You can get what’s called a standing caffe (sp?), where you walk into a small little diner and have your drink without sitting at a table. It means you can be in and out really fast and pay about 70 euro cents for the drink. But needless to say, my legs HURT by the end of the day, but I’d seen more places than probably anyone else that had gotten off the ship. Sure, I might not have been able to appreciate everything to it’s full extent, but that’s something you do when you have a week to spend in the city. I can always go online and read about what I saw, but I can’t go online and experience actually seeing it, or getting a picture by it. So I took the bus back to the ship, uploaded the 585 pictures I’d taken, deleted the duplicates or excessively blurry pictures, and tried to lay down before my jazz set.
So that was my day, and what a great experience it was. I’m so glad I had another chance to get to see Rome and that this time went so well. I have to say, I highly recommend Rome and Florence as places everyone should try to see. They are just so unbelievable and awe inspiring that they can’t afford to be missed. Other cities have been beautiful and fun, but these two just sit so strongly in history and display this importance in such a grandiose way that it’s impossible not to be overtaken by the art and absolute beauty of the generations past. Enough of that, go to Italy!!!

P.S. Yes, I’ve signed on/off about 5 different times now to make these few posts, but it didn’t cost a cent! Brilliant!!!