Luciana and Bruno, our hosts in Rome for the last week, have been wonderful. They are the couple pictured in the last post. We have stayed in their apartment and have had a wonderful time talking to them. They are gracious hosts. Bruno makes me tea and honey to ease the cold I have picked up along the way. He is cooking lunch for us today before we leave for the airport. He has driven us to several places, made reservations for us and overall has made our stay stressless and enjoyable. We have enjoyed our nightly glasses of wine together discussing many topics. Bruno has given us insight into life in Rome and Italy. We have become friends over our week's stay.
Our sightseeing has brought us to many tourist spots and a few not so touristy ones too. You can see from the pbotos that we have spent time at some of the famous piazzas and fountains, Piazza Navonna, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Popolo, Venezia, Repubblica to name a few. Public art and places to congregate are so important. We spent a lot of time in museums and a few churches. Galleria Borghese is my favourite. I don't have photos of the art because they don't allow picture taking and besides my camera wouldn't do them justice. We never did get into St. Peter's church or its treasury because the lines are way too long.We have spent the last few days at the Colosseo and the Forum and other ancient sites. It is amazing how emperors lived up on Palatine Hill.
We have felt safe everywhere we've gone and have found friendly and helpful people along the way. Also some rude and unhelpful bus drivers, tourist workers, and shopkeepers who were having a bad day but not too often.
Overall, we had spectacular weather, we brought the right amount of clothes, money, and figured out most things without too much fuss. We've seen so many interesting and beautiful places we will need time to digest it all. Speaking of digesting, it's back to healthy eating when we return. I'll miss my gelato!
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Rome Today
We had a good day despite the rain. For most of the day it was just a very light drizzle. We visited the Piazza di Popolo and a very nice church there with original Carrevagio paintings. We proceeded to the Spanish Steps and the Bernini fountain in front of it - a sinking boat. He took advantage of the low water pressure by making leaks in the boat instead of jets of water rising high. We found our way to the Trevi Fountain along with many tour groups. It is so impressive! Of course everywhere you turn in Rome is impressive. But this is special. Then on to the Pantheon which is one of my favorite sights. The ancient site is amazing as well as its rebuilding. We then had a late lunch and returned to our B&B for a rest. Our B&B is good. Our host, Bruno is awesome and so helpful. He will be driving us on several occasions and has booked us tickets online so we don't have to wait in line for several popular sites. Tonight he gave me a bottle of Prosecco to celebrate my birthday! How nice is that? We all had a drink or two and shared an interesting conversation before we headed out for a nice typical Roman dinner nearby. We arrived about 8:30 - 9:00 just in time to watch a Genoa vs Roma soccer match with the local patrons. We were clearly the only tourists in this small but packed restaurant. The food was good but somewhat unusual. Who knew that pork cheeks would taste like bacon? It was great fun. Too bad Roma lost in the last 2 minutes.
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