Hi From Rome -
Yes, we’re in Rome (Italy not Georgia). We’re just getting ready to hit the town for Saturday evening dinner. Of course, you can begin to think about going to dinner about 7:30 and if you leave your residence anytime in the following two hours you are just fine at any eatery. Before the trip began yesterday (Friday), we had disappointment. The weather had been great in Provance, thus we figured heading south to Rome we’d encounter even warmer weather. Well, the first 10-days of the 17-day journey got a poor weather forecast, starting with a cool and rainy day today and temperatures at the outset of the trip in the mid-to-upper 60s and a few days of some rain. I packed a bathing suit for the Amalfi Coast --- always the optimist. But, at the last minute I did pack my ski parka and wore it today.
Yesterday we drove to the Nice airport to take our 50-minute easyJet flight to Rome. 50-minutes across the Mediterranean Sea seemed a better choice than following the coast for 9 hours driving from Aix-en Provence. The flight ended well, so it must have been a good flight. On your map it looks like Rome is on the coast. Well, not really. The airport is very near the coast and Rome is inland, I’m guessing 25 miles, on the Tiber River, which goes out to the sea. We had a limo (an SUV) reserved and had a great drive in. First farmland, than scattered new 6-story condo buildings, then more urban with more 6-story condo buildings built over the last 50 years, then another ring that was older (more apartment buildings), and then into the Old City. It was noted for us that Rome has the largest Old City of any European city. Most notable, closer to the center of the city when we got off the airport autostrade, we saw gas stations. Actually, we saw a couple of gas pumps on the curb with a guy guy on a chair between them. So, you just pull into the parking lane to have the gas pumped. Forget the convenience store. Anyway, that picture repeated itself. Once in the city, there were no lane markers on the streets. It’s every car and scooter for itself. We were told early that Romans don’t like rules vs. the folks in the industrial north of Italy, who are organized and like rules.
We got up late and managed to deal with a flooding bathroom shower and a lack of the proper electrical adapters to recharge any of our three-pronged electrical gadgets. Our apartment agent (representing the owner who lives in Milan) was unbearable when we arrived yesterday and more unbearable when he showed up with the plumbers today. He’s a Libyan in his late 50s, who is very bright and knowledgeable, but he talks and talks and talks and insults and insults.......oh my. When Marlene asked a question about something in the apartment and he ended up talking about the Iliad and Virgil, I knew it was trouble. He’s one of those guys who knows a little more than everything, which is fine, but he goes over the top. He showed up with the plumbers this afternoon and was indignant that we had waited until noon today to call about the flooding shower and that he had driven 23 and one-half kilometers to get here with the plumbers. He insisted we should have called last night. When we explained we did not take our first shower until noon today and we called him immediately, it didn’t phase him a bit, we were still wrong. Marlene had used bath towels to try to contain the flooding and he criticized her, explaining she should have used the rug out in the closet off the outside balcony. What a dandy. You don’t bet much for 400 dollars per night.
We had pizza early in the afternoon, the second time (that’s correct, dinner last night). Okay, it’s Italian pizza and it was okay. I’ll let you know when we get to some great pizza. Out we went to walk this afternoon and we ran into rain. So, we jumped on the lone Rome tram. When we got to the end of the line in the Old Town it was raining, so three of the group went back to the apartment. I couldn’t waist a single afternoon, so out I went again. I used the umbrella 10-20 percent of the time. Travelling alone is certainly easy. You do what you want at the pace you want to do it, and you don’t do or say anything wrong the entire time.
I went to an area near the Forum and Coliseum, which is the end of the tram line. Check the photos. The area is dominated by the Victor Emmanuel Monument, the big white building, which was built in the early 1900s. It was built to honor Italy’s first king and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the country’s unification in 1861. There’s much more and you can look it up. The plaza in front of the building is Piazza Venezia, considered by many to be the center of Rome. Mussolini use to make his speeches from one of the balconies overlooking the plaza. Going up into the Emmanuel Monument, there’s a photo of the Goddess of Rome, with an Italian military guard on each side. Behind that Monument is the Sta Santa Marie Araacoeli, a church that dates to the 6th century. You see a city view, with St. Peters Basilica the second dome from the left. There are quite some Roman ruins in this area and the columns are located in what is refered to as the Julius Caesar Forum. The tall monument is the Trajans Column, constructed in the 2nd century AD. You see the column and the base of the column.
Got to go to dinner ---------- if we wait much longer we’ll be asleep.
The Wilsons
