Those open roofed red (or green or greenish) hop-on-hop-off busses are a wonderful way to get an oversight of a city but there is nothing to beat venturing into a city on foot! You can walk as far as you get and take the Metro or (omni) bus back.
Yes! Famous last words!!! That is if you end up close to a Metro station and you know the bus numbers! Yeah, I know!
We, on the first day, headed through (old) Rome, past the Colosseum and the ancient ruins, past the Wedding Cake (Vittorio Emanuel II Monument) towards the shopping district. The only way I could ever get the MD to go to the shopping district is in some devious way. And this time I was not even devious, as it was Hot! Hot! Hot! And we forgot to pack sun block and some antiseptic spray for hands plus a few other toiletries we thought we might as well buy on the ‘other side’. Not a good idea. These things are ridiculously expensive and they have different names. (In Portugal I once bought some what I thought was a body lotion, but it turned out to be shower gel / soap which I only realized after I remained sticky and started to itch long after bed time).
The clothes are to die for! And when we passed Zara, I could not resist. Bought a beautiful jersey. Then my reading glasses disintegrated in my pocket and I had to get another pair because I do need to check a map with minute writing from time to time. The stand said €11.50 but the woman at the counter insisted that her computer says it is €26 and she suddenly lost her ability to understand English completely! So here I have a pair of green rimmed glasses that makes me look like a blond Sarah Palin (ugh!).
The city of Rome is 2750 years old (approx) and what a bustling city it was in its day. Very organized, there were strict rules and regulations which people adhered to because discipline ruled. Give the people sport is exactly what the Romans did to keep the masses occupied, brutal as the sport may be. How they loved the blood thirsty gladiators and death. The women sat upstairs, and on the top there were the seats for the slaves.
And the old Romans were very clever people. Probably much smarter than we are today. For example the Colosseum was designed in such a way that it could be evacuated (50 000 people) within a question of minutes - not like any sport stadiums we have today. And the marble columns of the Pantheon are one solid piece of marble, no joints, and how that was transported and placed into position is quite baffling!
The Via Appia is still in use; let’s face it they built roads to last but
………..if the Romans could see the Italy of today they would freak out completely and utterly!
Yes! Famous last words!!! That is if you end up close to a Metro station and you know the bus numbers! Yeah, I know!
We, on the first day, headed through (old) Rome, past the Colosseum and the ancient ruins, past the Wedding Cake (Vittorio Emanuel II Monument) towards the shopping district. The only way I could ever get the MD to go to the shopping district is in some devious way. And this time I was not even devious, as it was Hot! Hot! Hot! And we forgot to pack sun block and some antiseptic spray for hands plus a few other toiletries we thought we might as well buy on the ‘other side’. Not a good idea. These things are ridiculously expensive and they have different names. (In Portugal I once bought some what I thought was a body lotion, but it turned out to be shower gel / soap which I only realized after I remained sticky and started to itch long after bed time).
The clothes are to die for! And when we passed Zara, I could not resist. Bought a beautiful jersey. Then my reading glasses disintegrated in my pocket and I had to get another pair because I do need to check a map with minute writing from time to time. The stand said €11.50 but the woman at the counter insisted that her computer says it is €26 and she suddenly lost her ability to understand English completely! So here I have a pair of green rimmed glasses that makes me look like a blond Sarah Palin (ugh!).
The city of Rome is 2750 years old (approx) and what a bustling city it was in its day. Very organized, there were strict rules and regulations which people adhered to because discipline ruled. Give the people sport is exactly what the Romans did to keep the masses occupied, brutal as the sport may be. How they loved the blood thirsty gladiators and death. The women sat upstairs, and on the top there were the seats for the slaves.
And the old Romans were very clever people. Probably much smarter than we are today. For example the Colosseum was designed in such a way that it could be evacuated (50 000 people) within a question of minutes - not like any sport stadiums we have today. And the marble columns of the Pantheon are one solid piece of marble, no joints, and how that was transported and placed into position is quite baffling!
The Via Appia is still in use; let’s face it they built roads to last but
………..if the Romans could see the Italy of today they would freak out completely and utterly!
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