Rome Wasn't Built in a Day, But Who Says We Can't See the Highlights in 24 Hours?

(Saturday February 28th 2009) :

We purposefully woke up early the next morning so that we could take a “special” walk recommended by our host. The ancient aqueducts happened to be just down the street from our hotel, and the beautiful clear morning light and crisp air made for the perfect opportunity in which to view them. They are quite impressive and beautiful structures, it felt as like we stepped into another world as we walked from the street to the dirt path leading to them. The aqueducts extending for quite a while down this wide-open meadow in the middle of the city. There were no other tourists, just locals taking their morning walk or jog along the path, which greatly added to the feeling of insider knowledge. The light glistened and beautifully lit up this structures as we walked along the path.



After our walk, we showered, and then were greeted with a tray of breakfast promptly at 8:30. We had scrambled eggs with wonderful olive oil, a fruit salad, strong and creamy Italian coffee, and special dates stuffed with walnuts (which he told us he picked himself.) We ate while looking out our window at the waking city below. We took the metro into town, and then bought tickets for the “green lines bus tours”. Yes, we road a double Decker bus. However, this was another recommendation of our host, since we only had a day in Rome. “You can waste so much time taking pictures of almost nothing in Rome. A specialized bus will take you to the important sights, and you can get on and off as you wish.” We boarded the bus armed with our cameras and sunglasses. Happy snappy tourists. We got off first at a piazza, then walked along the crowded streets, taking in the sights and sounds of the city. Along the way we bought roasted chestnuts from a street vendor. Although it wasn’t Christmas “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” were warm and delicious. We walked up these stairs behind the monument and found a beautiful overlook.

We kept exploring, and when Kevin figured out that most of these sights were less than a 30-minute walk apart, he decided we should walk most of the bus route. It was a beautiful day, and we saw a lot. Cathedrals, the pantheon, politically correct horse statues, the beautiful famous fountain, and of course the ruins, a guy dressed up as roman solider, and the coliseum. Rome had a grand, ancient and almost unreal feeling. To overlook, then descend into the ancient ruins was exciting. It is interesting to see such a juxtaposition of ancient and modern. The most startling of this perhaps was at the coliseum, which side by side was a structure from the cornerstone of western civilization with a hot dog stand. Nonetheless, everything was beautiful, and it was fun to imagine what it would have looked like thousands of years ago.




The day was quite physically exhausting, but rewarding. As the sun set, the city started to light up, and we walked around some of the sights to see them at night. The fountain was almost more impressive at night, the lights just lighting up the marble and water. We eventually found ourselves at another famous piazza. Kevin and I decided that this was a romantic place for appetizers and wine-The moon was bright, the buildings lit up, and someone was even playing guitar on a bench nearby. We wandered into the patio of a restaurant, and sat down right next to a heat lamp, looking out on this lovely scenery. We ate some grilled vegetables and had some Italian wine. Sigh. Beauty.

After appetizers we continued to walk, and headed to “treasure” which means “across the river”. It was a recommended place to go to eat, so we decided to check it out. The streets were smaller and cute, complete with strung lights. However, we had forgotten to look up gluten free restaurants, and no one seemed to under stand our question “dove un restaurante senza glutine?” So we searched in vain for a while, until we came across this whole-in-the-wall bar, and one of the bar tenders spoke English. He gave us directions back across the river and said, “you know the place with all of the cats, and it should be there.” We weren’t sure what he meant by all the “cats”, and never actually saw a heard of cats. We did however, follow his directions, and found a restaurant that was able to serve us some grilled meat and vegetables. We sat next to a heat lamp outside on the cobblestone street and enjoyed a beautiful glass of red wine, as our sweet waitress (who was only a year or two older than us but called us “kids”) clumsily broke an ashtray on the unforgiving stone streets. She laughed it off however, and after our meal we sleepily walked back to the hotel.