Rome in Review

I am writing this entry on the train from Rome to Florence. It is great to leave Rome. We have been overwhelmed by heat, inconvenience, expense, among other things. I wrote this post on: Thursday, July 10, 2008 10:02 AM.

When we arrived on Tuesday and checked into the B&B, Loredana bean to attack us for Ione’s phone call on our behalf the previous morning. She said that Ione was rude and yelling at her, which we know isn’t true because we were sitting there the whole time. Loredana insisted that we had to pay for the previous night because we had booked through a service, but that if I had emailed her directly to book the rooms, she wouldn’t have had to charge us. I had, however, emailed her early this spring as our plans were coming together to inquire whether or not she had a special rate for returning guest. I never hear back. I told her that, but she said that my letters must have gone into her spam folder. Yeah, right. Anyway, there wasn’t a scene, but she was aware that I wasn’t happy.

We dropped our bags in the room and headed out for the Coliseum. We took an easy stroll down through side streets and came upon the stadium from the side, a view that offered a nice surprise to Mom.



We had to wait in line almost an hour before we could get in, maybe more. Then in another 2 lines for Mom to get the audio guide. New on this trip is the combined charge for the Coliseum, Forum and Palatine. On previous trips when I have been Rome, the Forum has been free--one could walk directly through it after exiting the Coliseum.

Because Mom’s feet hurt terribly from the uneven travertine [later found out it's not travertine], we hopped on one of the “hop on/hop off” Rome city buses that gave us a panoramic view of the city while also getting us back to the station and near the B&B.

On the bus, we saw St. Peter’s, the Quirinale (Italy’s White House?) the Via Veneto among other things. The extended period of time in the Coliseum set us way back on time, so we didn’t get back to the B&B until close to 8 PM. At that point, Mom was done for the day, so we didn’t go back out to eat, but I went to the Internet café to upload those first several posts.

Next morning, we lit out for a shoe store at 9:30, but were waylaid by the lack of selection in Mom’s size. While she shopped, I browsed an eyeglass store (like Pearle Vision) and an amazing bookstore that had a vast literature, poetry and drama section. We hopped back on the open top city bus at a little after noon and stayed on back to the Coliseum, where we disembarked and headed up to the Palatine (which is also the new entrance to the Forum). Because we had paid the combined ticket, we were supposed to get in without waiting in line, but Mom accidentally threw her ticket away. Instead of both of us waiting in line, I gave her mine so she could see the Palatine alone, thinking I’d buy another ticket and walk directly to the Forum and we could tour that together.

After waiting in line close to 45 minutes, two young men came by selling their tickets. I jumped at the chance to skip the remain 30 mins or so in line, and walked directly to the ticket holder entrance. Turns out that the tickets were no good, and if I wanted to get in, I would have to go to the end of the line--which was now 3x as long as it was when I had gotten in it. ARGH!!!!!!!!!

Thinking fast, I turned around and made for the Palatine exit/Forum entrance, a point where the two come together but are separated from the public by an iron fence. It was at this point, on the inside, that we were supposed to meet. I found Mom there sitting in the shade waiting for me, explained what happened and told her I’d meet her when she was finished. She toured the Forum alone (albeit with Headi) and we reconnected at about 2 PM, hopped back on the bus.

Our next stop was the Bocca della Veritas (am I getting the chronology right?), the Mouth of Truth that was featured in Roman Holiday, with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. Back on the bus, we got off at the Trevi Fountain, had lunch at a nearby café where we had our first Chianti of the trip, then walked (first in the wrong direction) to the Spanish Steps. Along the way, we did a lot of window shopping and had some gelato.

We are hearing much more English in Rome than we heard in Naples/Pompeii, and encountering American students of a more down-to-earth sort. We are both fascinated by the number of times English is used as a second common language between Italians in the tourist industry and Russian, German, Asian, Indian travelers. I don’t remember that happening before--perhaps because other world economies are stronger now, non-Westerners are traveling in higher numbers?

[I stopped writing before the train pulled into to Firenze SMN without giving full details of that train ride--that is to come later--and have restarted at 5:21 PM. Mom is napping; I am typing on a balcony overlooking Via Roma. I swear to God I think I just saw Colin Firth walk down the street in khakis, white shirt and blue blazer.]

After showering and cleaning up in the late afternoon, we headed back out for dinner, stopping first at small Indian vendor whose windows I had been eying for two days. I knew he closed at 8:30, so we walked in at about 8:10 tried on a number of bracelets necklaces and earrings before I asked him a price.

All of the pieces were sterling silver, some with inlaid turquoise, so he weighed them and gave me a price per item. He was charging 40 cents (multiply that by 1.69 for US dollar) per ounce but insisted that was 10% lower than what he would normally charge. I was hoping for something lower, so we started haggling. All I really wanted was the bracelet, but I know that he’d give me a better price the more I bought. I offered a price that was too low for him; he said no. I said refused the three pieces on the ocunter and kept looking. I found something else I liked, hen asked him a price for the bracelet and the new piece, without the two pendants. It was getting close to 8:30 and as I suspected, he was eager to close on time and still make a sale. I didn’t save much, but I got him to come down $6 on the price.