Our alarm was set for 6.  The plan was to hit the Coliseum early, then run over Palatine Hill and the Forums, hoping to be done by noon, then do some other sightseeing.

 

Around 3 AM, a car horn went off.  Close.  It sounded for what seemed to be 30 seconds or more, making sure that we were wide awake.

 

After that, other sounds outside our 5th story window made sure we stayed awake.  Being small town folks, we could not understand what the hell could be making this much noise at 3AM, but such it was.  I fiddled with the air conditioner for a while, trying to create some white noise.  45 minutes of up-and-down fiddling, I gave up.

 

Lana remembers looking at the clock at 4AM.

 

At some point I remember thinking “There sure is a lot of light in the room to be before 6” and falling back asleep.

 

Later Lana said, “What time is it?”  I looked at my watch and was surprised to see it was after 8!  Either the alarm had not gone off or we had slept through it.  So much for our plans…

 

At 9 we headed down to breakfast, sharing a table with a couple from Idaho (California transplants) who were well traveled and had been here for a few days.  They had spent yesterday at the Vatican in the company of a tour guide named Christopher, who was a theology professor and a Vatican expert.  They raved about him, and gave us some other tips.  After we finished eating, we went to the desk to see if we could arrange a tour with Christopher.  The tour company owner said that it appeared he would be teaching tomorrow, but we might be able to hook up him when we were back in Rome on the 17th.  We left our cell number at the desk and asked them to call us when they got everything straightened out.

 

Your humble correspondent.

 Lana was disappointed to find that her curling iron did not like European power.  It would fit in the converter that I brought from home, and all our chargers (cell phone, computer, etc) worked, but the curling iron wouldn’t.  I did notice that when I had the computer plugged into the converter, the cursor would jump like crazy when I used the touchpad.  It worked fine using the eraser-type pointing device, but the touchpad was unusable unless I disconnected from wall power.  Strange.  I made sure to only keep the computer connected long enough to charge the batteries, since there was some obvious weirdness getting through the converter. 

 

 

We also discussed what we wanted to do for the next few days.  The original plan was to head south for a few days, exploring Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast.  But we started to think better of it.  The weather was good, warm and sunny all over the country, and we wanted to see Venice.  To go to Sorrento, then back north to Venice, would mean to travel pretty much the length of the country, and lose almost a whole day to travel.  An option would be to skip Sorrento, go to Venice, and if we got tired of it, head to Cinque Terre, a coastal area in the North that was quite pretty and not as far away.  A better use of time, we thought.  Decision made.

 

Back at the room, we discussed plans for today.  Now that it was later, maybe we should skip the Coliseum.  The couple at breakfast had raved about the Pantheon, so we decided to head there instead, and save the Coliseum for another day.

 

 

 

The Victor Emmanuel Monument

 

Our route took us through the Arch of Tito and the Roman Forums, over the Victor Emmanuel Monument, and down into the city.  The day was about perfect…sunny, with temps probably reaching 70.  I was sweating a bit under my backpack.  We were checking bookshops looking for a good guidebook.  A lot of the street vendors carried one that looked pretty good, but I wanted one with a bit more detail.  Have to keep looking.

 

On the way we passed an area marked as "Area Sacra" on the map, which is more correctly known as Largo di Torre Argentina.  During street construction in 1927, the remains of four ancient temples were discovered and excavated.  The oldest dates to several hundred years before Christ.

 

 

The Pantheon is buried in the midst of urban Rome.  It doesn’t sit on a hill, and isn’t really visible until you walk right up to it.  It, of all the antiquities in Rome, is the most preserved, and probably the most dramatic.  Built in 120 AD, it is a marvel of engineering.  It is said that when Michelangelo was commissioned to build St Peters, he was allowed to cut out a square foot of the Pantheons’ dome to study how it was built.  1200 years had passed, and the preeminent minds of the day had no idea how to replicate it!

 

The building is stunning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 After an hour or so there, we walked west to Piazza Navona (sadly, the Fountain of Four Rivers was covered with scaffolding for renovation) and Campo di' Fiori...both beautiful squares full of artists and street performers. 

 

 

 

Lana spied a bookshop, and we picked up a copy of Rick Steves guide to Rome, as well as a pocket guide to Venice.  The Rick Steves book was a welcome addition to my Frommers "Guide to Italy", and much better written.  I am now a confirmed fan of Rick's guidebooks.  We sat on the curb in Piazza Navona, soaking up the sun and travel advice. 

Bruno's statue in Campo di' Fiori

 

The the book had a walking tour of the Jewish Ghetto, so we headed there next.

 

 

 

 

After the Ghetto, we pretty much retraced our steps, heading back to Campo di' Fiori and Piazza Navona, then to Trevi Fountain. 

 

 

 The fountain was amazingly crowded, due to the holiday.  However, the guidebooks indicated that this is one of the most popular sights in Rome, so maybe it's always this way.

 

At this point, the day was getting old.  We continued north to the Spanish Steps, which was also very crowded, and then retraced back to the Fountain, then to the Pantheon via a different route.

 

Trevi after dark.

 

On the way, we stopped and ate at an outdoor place on Via del Peitre.  The food was OK…the waiter said that of the 20 something people working there, only one was Italian! 

 

We discussed our plans, and firmed up our decision to head for Venice Tuesday.  Tomorrow we would get up early (like we were supposed to today), hit the Coliseum and Forums (especially now that we had a good guidebook), and do the Vatican when we returned on the 17th.

 

A pair of very drunk Norwegian couples sat next to us, celebrating a couple of days away from their collective seven children.  We chatted with them a bit, and then they staggered off on their way.  The only drank half of their bottle of red wine, and donated the remainder to us.  We finished dinner and walked back to the hotel, plastic cups full of donated wine, arriving about 9.  We had been on our feet for 10 hours, with the only break being dinner.

 

Some assorted pictures from our day of walking around Rome:

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we walked in, the receptionist said that the tour company had called (why hadn’t they called me directly on the cell phone????), and we had an 11AM appointment with Christopher at the Vatican.  Private tour, just the two of us.   Couldn’t pass that up, so the Coliseum would have to wait.  Tomorrow…THE VATICAN.

 

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