Buona Notte from Roma!

Ciao a tutti!

Dad and I are now in Rome, the Eternal City. My feet will hurt for eternity--I think that's why they call it that. Or maybe because the layout on this keyboard is odd, making it take for eternity to write this post? Our flights were fine, hit a bit of turbulence, especially on the second flight, but otherwise it was smooth. Neither of us got that much sleep, but we seem to be managing pretty well.

We managed to get to our hotel with a minimal amount of hassle. Sorting out directions is always a challenge. Just because we know which metro stop to get off of, doesn't help us decide whether to go left or right once we leave the metro station! The hotel itself is tiny, but the room is a good size and the bed is quite firm, almost uncomfortably so. We were so tired though, it didn't really matter. But before heading off to bed, we almost immediately went out sight-seeing, making our way to a quiet little church: Santa Maria della Vittoria. From there, we worked our way up to the Spanish Steps, then took an awkward roundabout path to Trevi Fountain. After the required gelato stop, we meandered our way down to the Pantheon, which was happily still open.

From there, we tried to get to Piazza Navona. It should have been a straight shot, but all roads in Rome are curved and I think we overshot it. Or, more accurately, I knew where it was "on the other side of that building" -- the one we couldn't walk through or around! Finally though, we made it there, and it was very quiet. No Christmas market like there was last time I was in Rome. From Piazza Navona, we went to dinner as we were both tired and a bit cold at that point. We ended up walking past the Colosseum on our way back to the hotel, which should have worked just fine except we took the wrong street and ended up ABOVE the street we wanted to be on. Fortunately there was a ramp that dropped us back down to where we needed to go.

Today we got up and visited the Colosseum, which was actually more impressive than last time. They had a temporary exhibit about different art that had been lost or stolen, then recovered over the years which was quite interesting. On our way to Palentine Hill, we went the wrong way (big surprise) and stumbled across a tiny little church that was rather neat. I probably should have taken some pictures, but its best feature was a stained glass window featuring the Colosseum, and stained glass does not photograph well.

Finally we made it over to the Palentine Hill, which I hadn't been to before, so that was exciting. The weather was great, and we got a gorgeous view of St. Peter's Basilica. The Palentine has far too many stairs, though this isn't entirely unexpected given that it is on top of a hill. We then dropped down into the Roman Forum, which is always a treat, although being in ruins it requires a good exercise of the imagination. And a willingness to climb more stairs to get out!

While we had hoped to tour Trajan's Forum next, everything took longer than expected, so we decided to put that off til Friday and return to the hotel for a few minutes before setting off for the Galleria Borghese. We had just enough time to change our clothes before hitting the streets again, stopping for a necessary gelato (in place of lunch) and then working our way up to the Borghese. We were doing quite well until I made a stupid turn that sent us deeper into the park that surrounds the Borghese Gallery and got us totally lost. I was slightly nervous we would be late for our reservation, but it turns out I needn't have worried. They lost power, plunging the entire museum into the dark, and forcing them to shuffle everyone outside until power could be restored about 15-20 minutes later. It got a bit cold sitting there waiting, but the statues and paintings at the Borghese are well worth the wait.

I've probably taken about 100 pictures or so thus far. And of course! My camera battery died at the Trevi Fountain again! This is becoming a habit. Fortunately, this time I DID have a spare, and my battery charger DOES work. Hallelujah! I don't have any way to upload any pictures right now, so I will hopefully be able to add more later.

Tomorrow we are off to tour the Vatican and St. Peter's. My feet are rebelling just thinking about it!

Ciao for now!




Added: Pictures of our hotel room in Rome.