Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Italy, Day 4

02 Apr 06

I learned an important lesson... 7-8 hours is not nearly long enough for clothes to hang dry in a small bathroom in a humid country.  I get to wear damp clothes today!  Yipee!  It's kind of like putting on a damp bathing suit, only all over your body.  Thank God, Mrs Squid had a pair of socks I could borrow so I wouldn't have to wear wet socks.  First full day of Italy and this trip is turning out to be quite an adventure!

Clothes were so damp that when I got up from eating breakfast, I left a wet ass-print on the chair.  Wish I was kidding about that.  It looked like I peed myself while eating.  Let's just hope that's the most embarrassing thing that will happen to me on this trip.

Today's walking tour included the Borghese Gallery, the Colosseum, and the Pantheon.  I wish I'd thought to bring a pedometer to keep track of the number of miles we'll walk in a day here.

The gardens outside of the gallery




We even stopped to watch some hard-core footballers.  They were playing on pea gravel.  And I mean, playing! Slide tackles included.  As much as I love soccer, there's no way I'd even consider playing on the surface they were.

Outside of Borghese Gallery, before we started off on our hike walking tour.
 
And we're walking...

So...I learned that when pieces of the arch fall off, they just replace it with random pieces from elsewhere.

The Colosseum was astounding.  The history in this place is haunting.



Whew, taking a break after refilling our water bottles.

(I can't find the pictures I have of the drinking fountains in the area.  You can drink right out of the running fountains, fontanelle, which come directly from the aqueducts. Much cheaper than buying water and very yummy.)




For dinner, one of the guys in our group who had the opportunity in college to live in Rome for a semester, took us to one of his favorite places.  There was a film crew there, who knows what they were filming, looked like a reality show of some sort.  The evening walk gave us the opportunity to take some cool night pictures.




Let me tell you, by the time we get back I'm going to be in great shape!  All the stairs and hills here will do my ass a world of good.

4 comments:

Allenspark Lodge said...

"when pieces of the arch fall off"

I guess it hadn't occurred to me how dangerous it might be to walk under that thing.

Bad juju.

Bill

Momma Fargo said...

I think I died and went to garden heaven. I needs to go to Italy. NOW

GunDiva said...

Beel, hate to disappoint you, they've got it blocked off. You can't walk under it and have pieces fall on your head.

Momma - it's amazing. Wait 'til you see the pics of Cinque Terre. You'll definitely understand why I fell in love.

Rachel said...

I was wondering about what Beel mentioned... glad I read your comment too.

The sense of history is just amazing. How incredible the time and beauty they put into the architecture - and it is still here for us to enjoy so many years later (well, mostly HERE... except for parts of the arch!)