I alone took over 700 photographs documenting our travels across Italy, Greece and Turkey. An adventure. A history lesson, better than any high school text book has to offer. Amazing. Fantastic. Oozing of culture. A trip of a lifetime.
The journey to Europe is anything but romantic. It's long, cramped, stuffy and exhausting. However, I have never been so gracious for modern technology, specifically those small, little television screens mounted on the back of every headrest. With out the ability to watch movie, after movie, to pass our eight hour flight over the largest body of water I have ever crossed, I would have surely developed a sever case of cabin fever.
Though traveling is always more fun when you have company!
Landing in Rome, our hearts raced and we eagerly piled on the hotel shuttle. Our 40 minute ride to the hotel was exhilarating. Not in an OMG!-Look-at-Rome! kind of way. No, it was more of a Holy-S^%$-these-idiots-drive-like-idiots-and-I-just-survived-a-plane-ride-over-the-Atlantic-Ocean-only-to-die-in-a-car-crash-in-Rome kind of way...
I might as well just get this out of the way... I WILL NEVER, NEVER, EVER, DRIVE A VEHICLE, EVEN A BICYCLE, IN ROME!
Our hotel, Hotel Atlante Garden, was very quaint. The room was small, but sufficient. Rah Rah was in love with the real shutters on the windows.
Not to mention we had state of the art, modern electricity as Handy Man guaranteed we would have.
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It's a good thing I find pleasure in proving Handy Man wrong. He insisted I didn't need a power converter or plug adapter because "it's 2013, and Europe is totally modernized." Obviously. He was insistent that it was waste of money buying an adapter/converter and that I needed to make sure and keep my receipt and not open the package until I got to Europe. He assured me that I would get to Italy and see that it was "modern" and I did not need an adapter/converter and I could return it later.
Snicker. Snicker. Oh Handy Man...
From our forth floor window, we had an amazing view. Beautiful multicolored buildings adorned in little shutters on every window and other architectural compliments. Beautiful trees.
Not to mention a perfect view of the parking and driving capabilities. Parking is literally bumper-to-bumper. Double parking, smart cars backing up to the curb between two cars parked normally on the street is completely normal. We just could not wrap our heads around it.
To the right, at the very end of the street was one of the exterior walls of the Vatican. Amazing sight to see!
To battle jet-lag, we were told to drink plenty of water and when we got to the hotel take at least an hour nap before exploring.
That's hard to do when you are so excited!
But we followed the advice and we were so glad we did. The nap was the perfect re-charge we needed before starting out on foot for our Day 1 sight seeing adventure. I had carefully planned out our first including Google mapping our rout, including precise directions as well as a brief description of the significance of each stop - I may be able to change my job title, but you can't take the
We actually covered an amazing about of sights in the first half day we were in Rome. One of our first landmarks was the Piazza del Popolo - the "People's Square" and the most important route to the north from Rome. An Egyptian obelisk of Sety (erected by Rameses II) stands in the center of the piazza.
The piazza was quite large. Immediately we noticed the street performers and tricky rose guys everywhere. The rose guys would come up to you and offer you a rose for a beautiful lady. We might not be worldly, but Rah Rah and I have enough street smarts to know nothing is for free.
Do you know hard it is to give a rose back to a guy?
While protesting the flower and informing the man we had not intentions of giving him any money, he began to tie a little threaded bracelet on me. I told him I was not paying for the bracelet. Of course he assured me that is was just a gift. Rah Rah received her "gift" and then we were successful in handing back the flowers telling him we would be out all day and didn't want to carry them.
After taking back the roses, of course, he asked for money.
We said no, and quickly moved on. Right then and there we got hip to the peddlers and the rest of the trip we looked right thru them as if they did not exist, making sure to never make eye contact.
These were our favorite guys. They never moved, never said a word.
We pushed on to the Spanish Steps and we really were able to grasp the numbers of tourists that visited Rome on a daily basis.
Swarms of people - everywhere!
We were able to find one of the 138 steps vacant and took a moment to sit down, watch the crowds and thrive on the fact we were here.
We also learned that we have trustworthy and friendly written on our foreheads. This was the first of many "I will take your picture, if you take my picture" encounters.
Next we shuffled out way to the Trevi Fountain.
There were a LOT of people at the fountain! I am not sure which one I was more impressed by - the fountain or the number or spectators crammed around the fountain.
We weaseled our way down, front and center for pictures and to toss our coins into the fountain.
A local man offered to take our picture. I had visions of him running off with my new camera. But he was upstanding guy who first told us about the superstition and symbolism of tossing coins into the Trevi Fountain. He said we had to hold the coins in our right hand and toss them over our left shoulder with our backs to the fountain. The number of coins you throw into the fountain mean different things.
The first coin - so you may return to Rome and the Trevi Fountain.
The second coin - for (to find) love.
The third coin - for getting married.
The fourth coin - for a divorce. hahaha
After our picture, he chatted some more and moved right in for the kill. Are you single? Can I show you around? You ladies are beautiful... Our awkwardness was overwhelming. Europeans are so much more upfront, open and lack the concept of a personal bubble - he followed by giving us each a very uncomfortable kiss on the cheek and we went running in the opposite direction screaming stranger danger parted ways.
After sitting a while, we pressed on.
After lunch and a glass of wine we were feeling refreshed and rejuvenated!
From the outside, the Pantheon is amazing.
From the inside... it is breathtaking!
It is the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. How is it possible that something this grand could be created so long ago, without modern - there is that word again - technology?
And after all this time?
How on earth was this still standing today?
We learned throughout our trip that structures converted to churches were about the only buildings still standing today. If they were not at some point occupied as a church, they perished over the years.
Today, the Pantheon is the final resting place of two former kings and a queen of Italy.
The Pantheon was easily one of our top five things we saw.
Outside next to the granite columns.
The Piazza Nivona were we had a little gelato break.
The Tiber River.
As the sun was showing signs of evening approaching, we headed back to our hotel and called it a night. We were tuckered out.
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