Bella Città Senza Pioggia {Beautiful City Without Rain} May 22, 2008

Rome was starting to really get us down but the sun came out some yesterday and we have a renewed interest in the Eternal City. Let’s not be mistaken or inaccurate, it still poured rain at least twice yesterday for about an hour each time. The first time we were completely caught off guard. We had gone to the Colosseum but the lines were ridiculous and since we knew we also wanted to see the Roman Forum we decided to walk over there. The lines there were also ridiculous and so we just started wandering around.

Wandering on foot is the best way to discover a city and this unfortunately was our first opportunity to do so, since arriving in Rome, without getting completely soaked. We wandering through the Circus Maximus which is where the largest horse race track ever is said to have been, as well as where group killings were held by the emperor Nero.

We were really enjoying it until a freak thunderstorm came from nowhere and so we hopped into a little family restraunt off the beaten path. We had a couple of pannins and some water to rehydrate from the walk but then realized when it was time to go that they didn’t take credit cards (or speak much more English than we speak Italian). Poor Caleb had to power walk about a half mile in each direction to the nearest ATM and right when he got back it started to pour.

We stayed there for another hour or so and met a nice old man with a 15 year old dog named Bobby. Bobby was so sad, his hind legs weren’t doing much for him these days and he was not so keen on getting wet. Bobby’s owner, which I’m sorry to say I didn’t get his name, is from Scotland but came to Rome for a 2 week vacation 39 years ago and never left. Don’ worry – there’s been too much rain for any chance of that happening to us!

After it finally stopped raining we headed back over to the Colosseum and got right in. Wow is that place amazing. We had an archaeologist who spoke English that sounded exactly like Italian take us around and give us the main history. The Colosseum, which actually was named the Flavian Amphitheater, got the nickname Colosseum because it stood next to a huge, or colossus, statue of the emperor Nero.

You can no longer walk around in the bottom of it but you are free to wander the other two levels and use your imagination to envision what it must have been like 2,000 years ago when it sat from 50,000 to 90,000 people. Each person in Rome was given a special ticket with their seat engraved on the clay or stone ticket. This special ticket, the lack of entrance fee and the 80 arched entrances completely surrounding the entire theater made it very efficient to have so many people there and they could all get to and from their seats with ease. It is said that the theater could be completely cleared out in a matter of only 10 minutes thanks to the 186 exits. The history is too much to tell here but purely astonishing and we feel so lucky to have had the chance to walk around inside this little piece of ancient Rome.

We were lucky that the second rainstorm of the day came while we were inside the Colosseum and mostly protected from the weather. It gave us an excuse to visit the exhibition they had set up inside one of the corridors with some really neat old relics. There were things there, statues, friezes, pieces of column and coins, from before Christ and we were standing right next to them. It was all awesome.

After the Colosseum we wandered around in the Roman Forum and Palatine for sometime. This is basically a huge park where the first Romans founded the city. There were palaces and gardens and roads though much of it is barely discernible today. It takes a lot of imagination to see what must have been magnificent here thousands of years ago. Even today after all these years much of it is quite beautiful, especially the one small garden edged by orange trees with views for miles.

We took this opportunity to head over to the Ferrari and Fendi stores we had both wanted to visit while we were in their mutual birthplaces. We didn’t buy anything of course, but it’s still fun to look – and dream.

Dinner was a huge-mongous pizza from this pizzeria down by the Spanish Steps. It was another great Italian meal! And we did as the tourists do – after dinner we sat out on the same Spanish steps where Keats and the old greats used to meet. It was a nice way to spend a day.

Today we plan to have our first nice dinner to commemorate our last night in Europe. After of course heading over to the Sistine Chapel and then the Pantheon.

We’ll let you know how that goes later on but for now we have to get out of the hotel and into the beautiful weather that seems to be in store for us. When the sun shines in the Eternal City and you can see the seven hills laid out with their Italian villas and trailing azaelas on the decks it will take your breath away. We plan on getting to see as much of this as possible before heading back stateside.

Especially since we just got word from home that our freezer in the garage, which was unforunately completely full of fish (of all things), went out sometime while we have been away. Thank God for Megan who braved the stench to clean it as best as she could. There’s rumor that Jason’s stomach couldn’t handle but Jeremy was generous enough to make the trip and lend a hand. We are certainly not looking forward to returning home after two weeks to a house that smells of rotten fish but we miss everyone and can’t wait to see our Bosco, Sugar and Lexie again!

Arrivederci for now!

Rome still rainy May 21, 2008

Another day of non stop rain in Rome is putting a damper on what has turned out to be a very confusing city. There are ancient ruins on every corner of every block, and at each of those corners the street name changes atleast once, making situating yourself quite difficult. There are only two actual metro lines for the entire city and so everyone travels by car or bus. This means the buses are continually overcrowded and stuck in traffic.

All of this wouldn’t be so bad, since there are so many things we were so looking forward to seeing in Rome. It’s just that it rained all day yesterday and all day today. Not just a little sprinkle either – full blown pouring rain. There are millions of tourists everywhere and as one waitress said today, “Come back to Rome … but don’t come in May because you’ll either get wet or walk around looking like a bananna – like them,” she was referring to two tourists looking over the menu on the sidewalk, wearing bright yellow ponchos. We’ve both agreed – we’ve never seen so many umbrellas and/or ponchos in all of our lives, combined!

They say it may clear up tomorrow and we are planning on it since first stop, first thing is the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Nero’s Circus Maximus. These are the things we came to Rome for and so tried to save them for what hopes to be a nice day.

This morning we managed to find our way over to St Peter’s Basilica and Piazza di San Piatro (or St. Peter’s Square). They were truly amazing, especially the inside of the church. It was built on the tomb where St. Peter himself is said to be buried. We spent an hour or so in the treasury museum inside where we saw lots of challices from past Popes adorned in unbelievable amounts of diamonds and jewels, as well as a tomb from a former Pope and similar antiquity. There were tons of tourists there and so we were ready to go after getting through the square, church and inside museum. We plan to return for the Vatican Museum, which is where the Sistine Chapel is, on Friday.

We had a late lunch at a little place just off St Peter’s sqaure – it was awesome! The food in Rome is great and thank goodness we haven’t been here for our entire trip because if we had been we wouldn’t be able to fit in our plane seats on the way home!

After lunch we went over to Plaza Venetzio and walked around Campadaglio. Again, every corner here is ruins or ancient history and purely amazing. We then took a taxi (because it was once again pouring rain and we were also once again lost) over to the Trevi Fountain (or as the cabbie made a point of making sure I at least tried to say – il Fontana di Trevi). We’ve had so much fun just speaking to people and trying out our Italian accents that I’ve decided I simply must learn to speak Italian – it’s a beautiful, poetic language. I’m not just saying that either – it is actually derived from the language of Dante’s poem, The Divine Comedy.

The Trevi Fountain is really cool but it’s very hard to see through the masses of tourists in panchos with umbrellas – and even when it’s not even raining. We sat for drinks, and to wait out another storm, at a little sidewalk cafe just off the Trevi Fountain. The people there were really nice and we enjoyed the shelter very much.

Finally some actual art! There was a painter with a small stand of watercolors he had done that was trying to set up shop in between rain storms just across from where we were seated at the cafe. He had some beautiful pieces of the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, St. Peter’s sqaure and other tourist attractions. But he also had a few pieces that were just beautiful Rome – without the tourist attractions. I got a small painting of a door that immediately caught my eye. It’s the best thing I’ve gotten so far and I just hope it makes it home safely. C bought it for me as a gift and I couldn’t think of a better one! The painter even said it was his favorite, but I bet he says that to all the girls.

I took some pretty good pictures today but it’s hard when it’s constantly raining and I have to keep putting it away. We had to buy a waterproof bag yesterday just so we could take it out of the hotel room but I still don’t like to chance getting it wet. The picture size I’m using for the pictures is set to medium now but takes still creates really large image files so that they can be edited with Photoshop later, if need be.

This also means, unfortunately, that they take up a lot of room on the computer when I upload them every evening. We bought a 2 GB jump drive at the airport in Barcelona that has been sufficient enough up until now. But I’m full again and so can’t even open the pictures to crop them down to a size appropriate for posting here to the blog. This means no pictures again today – so sorry.

We have plenty of room on the camera still so I’ll continue to take them and we’ll look for a place to maybe get another jump drive or some sort of extra memory – but in the mean time this means no more pictures. I know, I know – that’s the best part! Sorry!!

We’ll do our best to get if fixed right away and continue to keep you posted on what’s going on otherwise.

Ciao for now!