My last two days in Rome

When I added Rome to our itinerary for our trip...many moons ago....I was pleased to add the trip but not over-thrilled as I had seen and been in Rome once before. Now as I was entering the last two days of my stay there...I felt a little sad to realize the end of my roman segment was here.

I was beginning to like Rome..a lot. The city was interesting and walkable. Good food and good coffee was always nearby....I was starting to look into shop windows at clothes and shoes and purses. I found the quality and the styles beautiful. I watched and studied the Roman women...what made them look so good...narrow pants...incredible shoes???A particular type of confidence? I was even beginning to say words like Bon giorno and grazia with some grace myself. I know a bit of French so translating Italian (in simple situations) was not difficult. Men smiled....I smiled back. We even mastered the subway system which was (in comparison) to NY..a piece of cake.

I could visualize myself staying longer in Italy....heading north to Florence or south to the Amalfi coast...I pictured myself wearing more stylish shoes.....but instead of more Italian travels we finished Rome with a tour of the Vatican and a tour of the roman forum and colosseum. I had visited these places when I was in high school....in the Vatican....I swear they have not moved a single statue....I recognized works of art and I recognized the room they had been in.

The most startling site was the Colosseum. I had been there before, as I mentioned, when I was in high school. When we entered the site my jaw dropped....it was so clean...and reorganized. When I toured it before you couldn't walk around the Colosseum inside....the walkway was broken in several places...chain link fence prevented your passage in areas...it looked old and worn and broken. Now..viola...you could walk around the entire first and second levels...some of the interior arches had been added to and renovated...the lower level of the Colosseum floor was built up. The jagged ground floor I remember was smoothed...the rubble used to rebuild. I kept saying to my hub...wow this place looks so good....but he had never seen it before so had no point of comparison. Strange but I decided I liked the ruined Colosseum better....the jagged raw place that looked tired and was showing it's age appeared more real to me than this tidier version...which seemed to say all 2000 year old structures look this great...not really.

After a rather long walk back to our hotel....we freshened up and headed to a restaurant by the Spanish Steps...we ate there earlier in the week...we had no problem finishing off a bottle of wine and our pastas...and our coffees...we even knew how to navigate ourselves down the back streets to our hotel. When I pulled the curtains..and cut off the view of the Piazza below our hotel room....I felt a little sad....I was just getting the hang of this place...and now it was time to leave.....I could use another week....but I had tickets in my bag for Israel the next morning....so I packed and headed from one eternal city to another...Jerusalem.



Sent from my iPad

More Roman Holiday

Our trip to Pompeii was quite nerve-wrecking but satisfying. Despite hours of research, I was still a little nervous about the travel plans. We had to hop on a train from Rome to Naples...then walk through a rather seedy piazza then take a train known for pickpockets then managed to go through the Pompeii ruins without fainting from sun or heat exhaustion (there are few trees).

With some effort and luck we found our way to our bullet train which was a quick hour ride to Naples. When we got off the train, google was right...the train station is a terribly seedy area especially at night. Homeless disheveled folks lurked about...some of the sidewalks were littered with broken bottles and the streets pulsated with fast get-out-of-my way or I'll kill you drivers. We only had to navigate 4 blocks to our hotel but it felt like 40....I was exhausted and sweating . We got in line to register and the woman in front of me...a blonde with a Russian accent kept getting assurances from the desk guy that she could rent the room for "only von hours". This had my confidence challenged about the hotel quality. After showing our passports, the desk guy instructed a huge burly Russian(also with an accent) to show us to our rooms. "here is dee kovveee maker..it's free so use it.". Now I had convinced myself we would be woken up and robbed by a Russian gang in Naples. No such thing happened...but I didn't sleep well that night...waiting for the Russian bellboy to team up with the one hour quickly lady.

Sent from my iPad

Roman Holiday

Well.....Bella Roma....we have one more day in Rome and are having a great time. I can even say bon giorno with some style.

We have been busy busy covering all of Rome's attractions from the odd Capuchin monks gallery to the Spanish Steps....and down to Pompeii .

The Capuchin monk place was quite a treat...lol. Sometime in the past the head of the order decided to use the bones of past monks who died to create several galleries of designs using the bones of dead monks. The order is dedicated to supporting itself so they made 5 galleries using their colleagues bones. They made decorative chandeliers out of bones.....think thigh bones gussied up with some spine bones and then made wall decorations think designs with scapulas and more spine bones which tend to be excellent fillers when designing sculptures.

Sent from my iPad

Outside our hotel window