9/21 Sun – Rome
We decide to walk thru the park toward the Colosseum as it is more direct and downhill. Across from the Colosseum we find our Angels, again we split into two groups, our guide is Jimmy, he majored in History and turns out to be great, and boy did he give us a lot of it.
We start with the Forum looking up toward Palatine Hill – this area is so vast and has so much history you cannot begin to take it all in. Our tour lasts 3 1/2 hours which only covers the Forum and the Colosseum so you can imagine how much history was thrown at us and he talked non stop. I did buy a picture book of the ruins we are seeing today then it has overlays of the way it was in ancient Roman times. The Forum was the political, religious and commercial center of the city, and as the empire expanded it became the center of the civilized world, spanning about 1,000 years. (500 B.C. to A.D. 500) It started as a republic governed by elected senators, over the last 500 years it was an empire ruled by a military-backed dictator. At her peak she controlled an empire that stretched from Scotland to Egypt and from Turkey to Morocco. America is only just over 200 years old, I wonder where we’re headed.
Next the Colosseum – we wait a short time in line but skip the really big line (sometimes it really pays to take a tour). Rick Steves guided us well.This 2,000 year old building is the great example of Roman engineering, built at Rome’s peak A.D. 80. They pioneered the use of concrete and the rounded arch. It held 50,000 spectators, covered by an enormous canvas awning pulled by armies of sailors for shade – the first domed stadium.
After saying goodbye to “Jimmy” we were going to see the Victor Emanuelle monument but it was way across the other side opposite to the way back to our hotel so we climbed the hill back thru the park, verrry slowly, back to our hotel.
Our train leaves at 2:09 pm for San Vincenzo and since we are walking to the train station figured we better get on the stick. We grab one of their wonderful unique pizza’s in the station restaurant and go in search of our track. Okay another adventure. The tracks we see in front of us go from 1 – 24 and our track is 25. Ok where is it? We go to #24 – figure it must be somewhere down here – about 6 blocks later pulling our luggage – walking pretty quickly as we have no idea how far, we find our car. Boy this is work! Today we have no assigned seat but we manage to find a couple where we can keep our luggage beside us.
Robert had printed out all the stops we go thru before San Vincenzo (pop around 2 – 300) so that made it really easy to identify where we get off. This time we are at street level – no problem figuring where the front of the station is. There are 2 taxi parking areas but no taxis. We wait around for a few minutes hoping one would pull up. Eventually Rod decides to walk into town to see what he can find. About 5 minutes later a taxi pulls up and Franco jumps out and says well here I am. okay now how was I going to find Rod. Franco says go on I’ll be right here with your luggage. Down the stairs in to town, walk up and down, no Rod, so back I go and within a few minutes here he comes. He had stopped in “Jimmy’s ristorante” and they called for a cab so Franco had to get on his phone and call him off.
Franco was full of information for us – showed us how to get out of town and on to the ocean road. There is only one way to get from the ocean road and town under the tracks to the highway running north and south, in days to come this comes into play big time for us after we pick up our car. Within about 10 minutes here we are at our Residenza dei Cavallageri. Lovely place, a bedroom, living room, kitchen & bathroom facing on to the pool area. Not a very large complex (ours that is) but there are 2 other condo type associations in our area with a restaurant, grocery store, beach shop, leather and jewelry store. We have plenty here to accommodate us for the next couple of days because we are going to do NOTHING.
Tonight we head over to the Ristorante in our little circle. Great little place, seats about 44 when full. Very extensive menu, all cooked fresh at the time. Wonderful pasta, fish dishes, pizza (Italian style), and a full litre of wine only 6 euro, 3/4 litre was 5.50 euro so we always opted for the litre. Great start to a great place.
Tags: Travel
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