Day 15, Florence to Rome, October 4th

Happy birthday to me!

Woke up at 8, said goodbye to Hostel friends, and took train to Rome.  Checked in at Hostel, which is super nice with nice guy in charge.

Wow! Rome!  So much to do here, so much to see!  So much history!  And I feel safer here than I did in Paris!

We took the bus into Rome, ate subway, then went square hopping.

You can't walk 10 feet in Rome without bumping into something monumental.  On the stairs down from lunch we saw an excavation and a gigantic marble pillar with a bas relief going in spiral pattern from top to bottom.

I felt compelled to go into every cathedral/church we passed, and as a result we went into 8 - just accidentally on the way to our destinations!  I'll list them here for posterity, and most of them were Cathedral size.

Basilica de S. Marie:  This is the most unique cathedral I've ever seen! At least 50 crystal chandeliers, marble everywhere.  It looked more like a palace than anything else.

Church of saint Ignatio of Loyola: large church, you could put a coin in a slot to light up an area of the ceiling.  The tippy top dome may have fallen in at some point, so they filled it in flat and painted what the view up used to look like.

Chiesa s. Luigi del francesi:  "Small" and hot, so we only stated for few minutes.

Sant Agnese in Agone: Another "smallish" church.

Basillica San Andrea Della Valle:  Pretty standard.

Basilica di San Agostino: Also pretty standard, at this point they were all blending tougher.

SS Salvatore alle coppelle.  Very small, but it had incense and ceremony going.

Anywhere, here is what we did with the day

First, we went to the Plaza Venezia, which has the massive and very impressive tomb of the unknown soldier.  There were also some ruins beneath the ground here that were partially unearthed, but people didn't really seem to care.

We then went to the Pantheon, which is an enormous dome dedicated to Mary.  It was built by the Romans but taken over by the Christians. Reiter and I are reeaaly sick of Christian stuff at this point.  We just want to see some roman stuff!

We then walked to Plazza Navona, which had a great fountain and an Egyptian Obelisk. There were lots of people selling stuff, few human statues, and a guy with a whistle who would imitate people walking by.  Reiter bought a turtle made of grass.

We then walked the wrong way and wound up at the river.  We walked west along the river, impressed at the bridges and the ruins sunken in the water (no joke!).

Finally, we wound up at Campo de Fiori, a small square.  We had a small dinner there, were serenaded by a guy with a guitar and saw a guy on stilts.

Then, as it was getting dark, we went to fountain of Trevi. On the way over we must have passed by a Government Building getting ready for something.  There were police everywhere including a group in riot gear.  It was super packed at Trevi, but we threw in coins and then had pizza. Vey pretty fountain.  Then we went home and called it a day at 8:30.

Christians!  We just want to see Roman things in Rome, but the Christians have everything!  What an annoyingly effective religion.  The Wikipedia article for attractions in Rome is divided into 3 sections: Religious sites, secular sites, and ancient Roman sites.  Of the hundred or so entries, only three are ancient roman!

Bah!  Humbug!

Anyway, Rome is awesome, excited to see more tomorrow.

G'night.

Addendum:  We just went to a Gelateria.  We ordered the smallest size they had, and they asked us "Which three scoops?"

In Italy, the smallest size for ice-cream is three scoops.

What a wonderful country.