Ancient Rome and rain
Trip Start
Jun 02, 2011
1
3
Trip End
Jun 18, 2011
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Sunday, June 5, 2011
We're still in Rome. Today was ancient Rome day.
First of all the sleep thing is still weird. We went to bed pretty late (eating dessert out at 1 am will set you back a bit – timewise). I woke up at 7 am, wide awake. At 11 am I finally got sleepy again and went back to bed. Ginny, lucky girl, was still asleep. I woke up again at 1:30 pm, she had woken up at noon, apparently. We missed the hotel breakfast which isn’t terribly impressive but would get us started. But off we went. We took the metro to the main station (Termini) and changed over to the other metro line. Then we got off at the Colosseum. Ginny was impressed when we walked right out of the metro and there’s a huge ruin.
She wanted to eat but there was really not anything to eat there except snack stuff at the metro. So we each bought a donut (quite good actually) and a water to hold us. When we sat down on a wall to eat a girl -- clean cut in nice clothes -- sat down right beside Ginny pretty close. I thought it was weird because there were plenty of places to sit where she wouldn’t be so close. But one thing we’ve learned is that Romans have no regard for personal space. (more on that later) We’ve been wearing our purses with the latches inside close to our bodies with the straps across our bodies. It happened that Ginny’s was on her left shoulder hanging to the right which was the side the girl sat on. My antennae was up. The girl started looking like she was taking pictures of weird things. Started looking like she was taking our picture so I held my hand over my face but continued to face her and Ginny. Quietly (don’t know why I was quiet, I wouldn’t be if I had it to do again) I told Ginny to move her purse to the other side toward me. She did and the girl immediately got up and moved on! Obviously she was a pick pocket trying to rip Ginny off. We thwarted her though! Chalk one up for the good guys.
Lines, lines and more lines. We had to wait in a really crowded 20 minute line to get our Colosseum tickets. While there, it started raining but not too hard (yet). After touring the ruins we went in search of a bus to the Navona Piazza. The bus is a good way to get around because we see so much on the way. But they’re not easy to find and navigate. We got where we were going pretty easily. During our wait for the bus it started really raining and I had to break out my trashbag poncho. Not really a trashbag, but I bought them at Target at home. They’re really thin plastic and pack very small (Mom reminded me of how handy they can be). I’ve been carrying around a couple of them for a few days. Glad to have them. And a street vendor convinced me to buy a small umbrella. These guys turned out to be every bit as irritating as tour guides.
The Navona Piazza is a big oblong plaza where they once had chariot races. It has a couple of pretty, old fountains and tents for street vendors. We found an outdoor café where we ate lunch. The food was so so. But it was more about where we were and being out of the rain. Next we walked just a few blocks to the Pantheon, a church that was constructed in the first century. It’s more impressive on the inside because of it’s size. Huge dome with a big hole in the middle so it rains inside the building. Seriously after 2000 years you’d think someone would have figured out a way to plug the hole by now.
Afterward Ginny was freezing from being wet and the cooler temps, and I wasn’t even hot but she wanted to go back to the hotel to put something warmer on and get dry (she was using her rain coat). We jumped on the first bus we came to that was going to a metro station. UGH. Crowded. I mean smelly people who obviously don’t use deodorant and you’re touching everyone. Not good. So there’s a man behind me too close. I turned sideway and gave him a big shove with my hip right in the groin and he moved away. Good grief. I’m not terribly patient with rude people. One bus ride and a metro ride later we were in our hotel room.
Ginny SAID she didn’t even need a nap after her good night’s sleep. But the minute we got to the room she went to sleep!!! I tried to stay awake for a while and finally cried uncle and joined her. I only slept an hour or so. But when we got up we didn’t have a plan and weren’t thrilled to trudge through the rain again. But then we thought of our favorite dessert spot, Pompi – home of the best tiramisu in Italy (so says the reviews). It’s two blocks away from our hotel and it closes at 1:30 am. We went and had dessert for dinner. Specifically three desserts between the two of us. Then we found out they were closed on Monday and each got one to go so we won’t be deprived tomorrow. They’re snug in our little refrig in our hotel room. So back to the room again, computer stuff and now bed. It’s been a good day. Tomorrow is shopping.
