Touring Italy North and South travel blog

Hard to leave this beautiful view of Umbria-1

Hard to leave this beautiful view of Umbria-2

St. Peter welcomes us to Rome

Tiber river in Rome

Castel Sant'angelo

Victor Emmanuel memorial to the unification of Italy

A better view

The Teatro d'Opera--just across from our hotel.

Back of the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, just a few blocks from...

SPQR-"Done by the will of the People and the Senate of Rome"

ssembling in front of the Coliseum

Donsld snf out guide Francesca

Under the Coliseum--like going into the game.

Francesca points out holes made when pwople took down the marble that...

Francesca shows what some of the colors of the marble that was...

Francesca shows us an overhead of the Coliseum today

Compared to a computer model of what it probably looked like in...

Thye have even found evidence of a retractable roof made of sails

Giant statute of Nero that was built next to the stadium but...

Francesca shows that the maeble statutes were once much more colorful

Looking over the arena in the Coliseum

Looking from the other end of the Coliseum

Showing the herringbone method used to build the Coliseum of bricks

Recreation of what the seats and the floor of the arena would...

Fromn the Coliseum looking at one fot he triumphal arches that remained--there...

The facade to the left once extended all around the stadium.

The white line in the concrete area shows where the facade once...

Some ruins we passed by on our way to the Roman Forum

Church at the Roman Forum ruins--the ruins were covered over and a...

Looking over the ruins of the Senate Forum and other buildings on...

Vestal Virgin plaque

Statues and ruins where the vestal Virgins once walked

At the Roman Forum ruins

David and Susan at the Parthenon

Statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius at Square at the top of the...

David and Susan in front of the Italian President's house

Vestments store we saw as we were walking ot the Parthenon

Backside of the Parthenon as we walk up to it.

Columns of the Parthenon

 

Roman concrete ceiling and hole at the top of the Parthenon

Egyptian obelisk int he square--there are more Egyptian obelisks in rome than...

Intricately carved column in one of the squares

Examples of some of the carving.

David and Susan at Trevi fountain

A fuller view of Trevi fountain.


We got up this morning for our trip into Rome. It is hard to leave this peaceful and beautiful place. La Rocca is a place to come back to, especially in the spring when it is so green, pretty, and cool.

We drove into Rome, taking a little drive around to see some of the sights in the bus before we tried to check into our room. Our tour this afternoon began with a Rome native who is American—Francesca. We took a metro train down near the Coliseum and met her there. She gave us a tour of the Coliseum, then we walked over to the ruins of the Roman forum. Francesca likes to help her travelers understand the mindset of the Romans and to see in their mind’s eye what Rome might have looked like. I think she was largely successful in helping us see what was once here.

We ended up in the Parthenon, which has been restored to glory once again. Like the Temple of Minerva in Siena, this place has been in use for years in other ways than the pagan temple to the important Roman gods that is once was.

From there Donald took us to a famous gelato place and bought us all gelato, then we took our gelato and walked to the Trevi Fountain, made famous in in the film “Roman Holiday” and no doubt others as well.

We walked back to the hotel. Dinner was on our own. We were told ther was a laundry around the corner that would wash and dry our clothes overnight, so before dinner we bundled up our dirty clothes and walked down to the laundry. It was a lot farther and a lot harder to find than we had expected. One reason we couldn’t be sure was that the sign said self-service. When we finally go there we tried to make the guy understand we wanted to leave the laundry, but he kept trying to tell us we had to do it on our own. We couldn’t stay to do laundry, so we just hauled our bag back to the hotel and told the desk clerk that it wasn’t what we had thought. He called the place and claimed that the guy who talked to us only spoke Italian and didn’t understand we wanted to leave our clothes. We weren’t so sure—we were doing pretty good on our sign language and he was clearly telling us we had to do it self service. We just blew it off and went to dinner. (When we went back on Sunday, we talked with a woman who did speak some English, and she refused to take our clothes either—we just stayed and did it ourselves.)

Entry Rating:     Why ratings?
Please Rate:  
Thank you for voting!
Share |