Rome is actually pretty strange ... there is "modern Rome" which is very much like you might expect any city of 3 million people to be ... busy, bustling, loud, full of traffic and people in a hurry.
And then there is "Ancient Rome" which is in fact surrounded by "modern Rome". Literally next to a temple or "house" or whatever constructed hundreds of years before Christ walked the earth will be a city street with stores selling everything from souvineres to wireless computer equipment. It's really very odd.
We left for the tour bus about 9:30AM ... hopped the bus to the Coliseum got off and started our marathon day of site seeing. To get as much as possible out of the day we decided to spend the euros and hook up with one of the "private" guided tours ,,, our private group of about 30 souls each paid 20 euros for an English speaking guide ... in this case "Roberto" who really did an excellent job of marching us through the Coliseum, explaining the finer points and some funny stories ... we finished that tour at noon where we were handed off to "Elayne" ... a young Canadian girl with a masters in art history ... she led the 26 or so of us that wanted to get our euro's worth up the Palentine Hill which was where Rome was founded a long damn time ago and guided us through the "palace" on the top of the Palantine. Really a very good tour and well worth the 20 euros.
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| From Eastern Mediterranean 2008 |
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| From Eastern Mediterranean 2008 |
One thing we learned was that these "private tours" are basically a cottage industry started a few years ago ... these folks contract with the executors of the big attractions like the Vatican, the Coliseum and so on for the right to lead tours with "special privileges" which really means you get to line jump ahead of the people paying somewhat less and you get a "guide" vs reading the signage or renting headphones to listen to recorded descriptions. I love capitalism!!
After the Palentine we walked through the Roman Forum (skipping lunch) and then on to the Pantheon. We covered lottsa ground and just barely caught the 4:30pm bus back to our starting point to crash before a splendid dinner at a small "mom and pop" restaurant Mom was about 75 and Pop was around 80 ... a fun dining experience. We topped off the day with gellato on the street ...
Tomorrow we head to the port and board the Grand Princess for 12 more days of adventure.
I posted several(but only a few relative to the numbers we took) photos in the gallery ... just click on the blog link and the gallery is a link on the left ... or click here Link to gallery
2 comments:
Oh my... those are quite some views - and no doubt gellato in the US doesn't compare to that in Italy. Crazy to think that things that old are still around to see! One day, when all this schoolin' gets done, we will have to venture to europa! Keep the blogs and pics-a-comin' - us down home folk look forward to them!
terrific photos. have a great sail away! Arrivederci! Hanno un grande viaggio!
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