I don’t know if our old time zone crept up on us, or if the several miles of walking yesterday made us comatose. But somehow we didn’t leave our hotel room until about 4:30pm. I must admit that our aches and pains feel a lot better as compared to yesterday.

Seeing drivers in Rome makes me cringe. We saw a car slam into the back of a scooter yesterday evening. The scooter even had a little kid riding between the adult driver’s legs. Both the scooter and the car continued on their way, unfazed. Parking is rare, and cars are sometimes parked in two or three vehicles deep with bumpers touching. No one seems to mind.

Restaurants of all sizes don’t offer complementary water like they do back home. You have to ask for water, in which they will deliver bottled water to your table. Nicer restaurants have glass bottles instead of plastic.

We went to the Colosseum this afternoon and I was truly humbled by the experience. They say that Rome stands as long as the Colosseum still stands, and that when Rome falls so does the world. After seeing the Colosseum I have to agree. My entire life – no matter how well spent or what achievements I can ever make – will ever come close to the 2500 years of history of Rome.

We were literally the last people to leave the Colosseum as Jenny made the staff angry as she paused to take numerous photos as they shuffled us to the exit. Very cool. Most stores close at 7:30pm, so we spend the remainder of the evening at the Piazza di Spagna. The sun was going down so the entire area was flooded with tourists like ourselves. We then walked past the Gucci, Louis Vitton, and other designer shops. We took a bus back to our hotel, then went to eat at “Est! Est! Est!” The pizzeria claims to be one of the first in Italy and boasts several of the original wooden furniture since it opened nearly 100 years ago.

Now we’re finally winding down back in our hotel. We have asked for another night because there is simply too much we haven’t done in Rome. Tomorrow is shopping and probably a few museums. Internet here is downright terrible. I’m having a hard time finding open or free wifi spots and those are near dialup speeds. I finally broke down and paid 9 Euros for 2 hours of Internet from our hotel’s wifi – and it is still pretty crappy. Therefore, I’m uploading pictures to Flickr as best as I can and not spending valuable internet time adding descriptions or flipping pictures around. I’ll do that once I get home. Ciao!

Categories: Miscellaneous
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