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Friday, Nov 03, 2000
Rome
11/03/00 1am (PST) 10pm (GMT +1)
Our first day is over. Our legs are tired and I'm not sure if we even still have our feet! To catch up: we landed late at night. The weather was rainy and as we taxied down the gate, we saw that it was a very heavy rain. The first thing I noticed upon leaving the plane is that our English signs were fading fast. We were in Italy now and things were in Italian.
Misty's friend Denise and her boyfriend met us at the exit. She drove us back to her place. It was a little outside of Rome and the view reminded me of what an Italian suburb should be. We were pretty drained by then. Denise made sure we were all set up. Our room was nice. Denise had to leave for work the next day so she left us to her house, which I thought was pretty charming. She did invite us out for the evening, and Misty really wanted to go, but alas it was already 12am and we were getting up at 7am. Plus, I had only slept for one hour the previous day. If I tried to get that little of sleep for a second day I'd crash pretty hard. I can go one day with little sleep, but two in a row is downright impossible. I'd be dozing off every time I blinked--even in the famous Sistine Chapel.
We arose at 7 am. I was still tired, but there was no way I was going to snooze on our Italy trip! We got ready to head to the metro station. The weather outside was great. As I peered outside the window, I could see the wonders of another country. We left the apartment and found that the streets were small and cozy. Everything looked just well--out of a movie. We got to the area where the metro was supposed to be but could not find it. We searched and searched for a LONG time. Denise has said most of the people in the area did not speak English, so it would be tough to get help. Ugh. She was right. We asked a lady, "Dove Metro?" (Where is the Metro?) She sort of understood and pointed back to some stores. She spoke about it, but alas, she didn't know that we spoke very little Italian. In the end we found that she was telling us where the METRO newspaper was! Hmm! That of course wasn't the answer we needed. We continued the search and finally went down into what looked like a big drainage ditch. It turned out to lead to the metro train system.
We got our tix and took the next train to Rome. There, we transferred at another train line and finally made it to the Coliseum exit. From there, we followed the "uscita" (exit) signs. Up on the top, we saw daylight and went out. Our first glance was a great one.... the Coliseum was there towering over us. It was great. This was indeed "The ROME!" We snapped a few pics and then wandered around the place, taking more and more shots. Everything was just beyond amazing. We then headed to the Vatican Church. It was a long journey. We followed a river and got many great pics from that, seeing houses that beamed with their age and splendor. Finally, we reached the Vatican. It too was amazing and there was an outdoor service going on. Now the clear weather made sense. Apparently, more than just Misty and I were praying for clear skies.
We went through a metal detector to reach the inside of the courtyard. This led to us finding out some bad news. The Vatican was closed for the day. This wasn't good, for we really wanted to see it.
After that, we left. We still had a deadline to meet as the Coliseum closed at 3:45. Along the way, we got to see a few other great sights. One was the Pantheon. It's awesome inside and quite a huge place. We visited a few fountains, statues, and other monuments too.
Finally, we hit the Coliseum. The line was a long one, but only about a half hour's wait. Inside, it was fabulous. We took pictures and basked at the wonder of it all. This was a huge event for us. There was no way that we were going to miss the inside of the Coliseum. Afterwards, we headed over to the old forum. Along the way, we came across a younger fellow who was trying to round up a group for a free tour of Ancient Rome. I was a bit wary of it all, but Misty had read about these things and heard they were good deals. They were indeed free, but tips were welcome in the end. That seemed fair. Our group started out with six of us, but soon grew to about 20 people! The guy was very informative and gave lots of information about the history of the Forum. It made the Forum a lot more fun to visit. In the end, we found the tour enjoyable and worth it, but we had no spare change or small money left only 50,000 lire. That does seem extremely high, but that's only about $22 which was still too much. We spoke with him a bit after and he was still kind and helpful even though we couldn't tip. We may take his night tour tomorrow night although it's a little doubtful since we've seen most of the things that his night tour covered.
Dusk was approaching as we finished our tour. We walked around and found a path that led to a hill where one could see the city and sunset over Rome. It turned out to be one of the grandest sunsets I'd ever seen. I of course took pictures and Misty did as well. We then headed back to the Coliseum as our legs began to give out. This allowed us to see the Coliseum at night. (It's awesome at night too!) By now we were starving, so we sat at a little restaurant next to the metro station. The food was bland, but dining in front of Coliseum was a blast in itself. After that, we took a short walk and then it was back into the metro station. We were a little more adept at reading signs this time through and boarded our train. At the transfer station, I guessed the wrong train, but Misty pointed out the right one. This only added to my list of errors for the day. I was at about five errors then and ended the day with six. Most of them came with picking the wrong direction on the map. Misty has a good sense of direction. I usually read maps fairly well, but I'm often troubled with knowing my bearing. I know the map orientates north; however, that doesn't help much unless you know which way you're facing. As I told Misty, if I had a compass I could have cut those errors in half!
After arriving home, we relaxed. Planning our next day was our next task. I also had to download over 200 pictures from my digital memory cards. Plus, the journal entry had to be done. Yeah it's been a long day. And tomorrow is another one!