Friday, July 10, 2009

Italian Honeymoon-Part 3 (Roma)

Day 1-Rome
So it's Monday morning and we are excited to explore Rome. Sally being Sally (thats me) decided that we should blend in as Romans and NOT tourists so I suggest to Miah that we were our nice jeans and dark shirts. BIG MISTAKE!!! I ended up putting on my True Religion jeans which are very thick and a black 3/4 length sleeve shirt and I was raosting the whole day. It must have been between 85-90 degrees that day and we were WALKING all over Rome.

1st we went to the front desk to see how we could get into the city (our hotel was 8 miles from city center) and they suggested their shuttle or the city bus which would take us to the Fermi Metro station so that we could take the train into Rome. We decided to go with the bus option and thus started our adventure. For the next 3 days we would ride the 705 bus from the hotel to the Fermi Train station and ride the train/subway into city center Rome. I can still hear the automated lady on the over head speakers calling out the station names, "arriving Basilica San Paolo, next stop Garbatella, next stop Garbatella." Her voice lingers.

On our 1st day we wanted to see the Coloseum and the ruins so we got off at Colosseo and walked out of the train station to be greated by the spectacular view of the Colloseum less than 100 yards in front of us. We were in ROME! We crossed the street and very bombarded with tour guides trying to sell us a tour but instead with you trusty Rick Steves Italy 2008 book in hand we denyed the tour guides and went in armed only with the knowledge of Rick Steves. It was magnificent, still standing after 2000 years it was mind blowing to think of all the history, change, violence and love that went on in this place. To think of all the people that had passed through the halls and witnessed a time that is legendary. It was truely a sight to see.

After the Coloseum we headed over to the Roman ruins where all the Ceasers and rulers built thier palaces and empires on top of each other and where they are now un digging lost cities and roads. Again amazing to see a place that is so old and full of so many stories. By this time it was very hot and we were getting hungry so we headed to the streets of Rome to find a restaurant. Along the way we ended up finding the Trevi Fountain but my camera was dead :( so I never got a picture of it. We ate lunch, sat in a park for a little rest and then headed back to our hotel for a reat before coming back into the city for dinner. Well, we ended up going back to the hotel to take our nap but the nap lasted till the next day!


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