The eternal city

Arriving in Rome is pretty simple, the baggage claim is slow and the air conditioning wasn't working but otherwise a normal airport. I had to wait a few hours for my wife and I was disappointed by the lack of a place to sit and eat or drink to wait. There was a "bar" which I learned more about as the days went by. A bar means a coffee place with few seats, if any, and a counter to lean up against to drink whatever coffee concoction your prefer. So I had a cappuccino and found another place to sit.

Wife arrived and we went to town. For E60 we took a taxi to the wrong hotel and then after a short hike to a nearby taxi stand and another ride we arrived at the correct hotel, Hotel 939. It's not named that anymore, which was part of our original problem, but it still does feature the narrow hallways and cramped rooms as seen on their website. The site was right on on some things however, the location is excellent, right in the heart of Rome and those "charmingly cobbled streets" did feature a late night yelling match in the charming alley outside our window.

The next morning we were ready to see the sights. We had purchased a ticket for one of the many "hop on - hop off" buses that circle the city so we just had to find the nearby stop. Our first bit of luck was noticing the bar just kitty corner from the hotel. With a small table to spread out our map and a couple coffees and pastries we were armed for the day. It was great fun to watch the locals come in to be greeted with a hearty "Bon Journo" from the espresso puller and take a couple minutes for their morning drink and a bit of local news. When we realized we'd been there longer than anyone else we took off toward the bus stop.

After a brief ride we arrived at the Colosseum. It is impressive and all but the statistics on the shear number of humans and animals that were killed here made it not very appealing, at least to me. Of more interest is the nearby Palatine hill where the emperors palaces were. Although now stripped of their fine marble and other art the area reeks of the power and glory that was Rome. From the hilltop one can go down to stroll through the Forum which was the center of the ancient city. Monuments have been built on monuments over the centuries so it's hard to get a feel for how it originally looked but it is the place where everything happened.

We walked over those three attractions in one day, I suggest you don't. The footing is rough from the rubble and cobblestones and there are plenty of steps to go up and down. Do half of it one day and the other the next. I think there is a two day pass that allows for this.

To top it off, we climbed up the Victor Emmanuel Monument and enjoyed the view back towards the Colosseum and the Forum. Quite possibly the most out of scale monument commemorating a pretty ordinary event, the unification of Italy, it does have a pretty nice cafe where you can sit and look down at the ancient city. It's also the seat of the city government but maybe you don't need to go poking around in the Mayor's offices like my spouse did. Pay more euros and take the elevator to the very top, we didn't. I was exhausted and my feet hurt. FWIW my few pictures can be found on my Italy picasa album.