Haven’t really had a chance to digest Rome yet. Ill start by saying don’t travel to Rome in July. It is the equivalent of being at NASCAR’s Coco-Cola 600 on Memorial Day. Hot, crowded, smelly and you forget why you came in the first place. Or Myrtle Beach on the 4th of July. Or the amusement park Carowind’s the first Saturday after school is out for the summer. You get the point. The crowds made the experience very different from that of Florence.
It was like a drive by. “Quick! Look here’s the Sistine Chapel.” And then it was gone. There was no time to put the brakes on or there would be a smelly, sweaty collision that involved 100’s of undesirable people’s skin against mine. So like mom says, “we made haste.”
On a more serious note, we spent two nights in a very modern hotel that was walking distance from the Coliseum and the rest of Ancient Rome. First stop was the Coliseum where we walked around several different levels of the amphitheater where construction started only in.. oh I don’t know, 64 A.D. The structure was capable of holding around 50,000 spectators that would come to watch gladiators and wild beasts fight until death. And some people say that Christians were sent to their death as martyrs in the Coliseum.
We also stopped at what is referred to as an ancient maximum security prison, the Mamertine, where the Apostle Peter was chained and held prisoner. We saw the Roman Forum, the Arch of Titus, Trajan’s Column, Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon. We spent several hours walking through Vatican City and the basilica where they were holding a mass and Pope John XXII was preserved in a glass coffin for all to see.
We ate pizza, and pizza, and pizza. If there is good food in Rome, we were unable to find it. We never even ordered wine with our meals because we just wanted to “make haste” and get out of the restaurants. So Rome my friend, here’s to your magnificent history! Hey, we all cant kick ass at everything.
Viva la Papa!!!
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