We got off at Leonardo Da Vinci Air Port were we met our tour guide, who will be called A.B. because tourist guide guild laws in Italy are very strick and she could get caught for guiding without a lisence and go to jail, so it added a suspence to the entire trip, especially when we were in front of the Italian parliment.
My first impression of the inner city of Rome was amazement. I figured Rome would have a sort of pride like America, but it was more of an old grandpa who jokes around with you. It was very nice, and we got to see alot of stuff that I forgot the name of, but I was able to get the names of the internet.
The first thing we saw was the Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II, who was the first King of Italy. See, a long time ago, Italy was seperated into several diffrent city states that fought and argued alot and then they decided to unite under King Victor Emanuel II, or he took over or something like that. Anyway, they built the Monument, also known as the Altare della Patrica as a monument to him. It is not really looked at very keenly by the people of Rome, who think it looks over done and like a giant typewriter. Nearbye was the old Embassy for Venice, and these nifty buildings that I unfortunatly forgot the name and purpose of. We also saw this cool building that I forgot the name of, but deserves it's own section.
For this portion of the tour we hade to walk everywere because the inside of the city is off limits to cars. This is because the drivers in Italy are insane. The people of Rome probubly all have Uncanny Dodge to keep out of the way of cars. I liked there system alot more then ours though.
After that we went to the Trevi Fountain, which was built to celebrate the creation of a new water source the Romans found during the Baroque period. According to local tradition, if you throw one coin into the Trevi Founatin, you will come back to Rome. If you throw two coins in the fountain, you find your true love in Rome and if you throw three coins in the Trevi Founatain you will get married in Rome. I only threw one coin in, because I don't want to deal with the complications of true love on my trip. There were also a bunch of middle-eastern guys who were trying to sell us these weird little clay balls that they made into ducks and breasts and things. I hade lunch near the Trevi Fountain at this great little pizza place, hade the best pizza in my life and got locked in the stall. This happened to me alot in the trip, I'm afraid.
From there we walked to the Pantheon, which was an ancient temple to all the gods in ancient Roman times. I didn't see any ancient gods, at least they didn't show themselves, but I did see the burial place of Raphael, a famous High Renisaunce painter who did the School of Athens. There was another important guy buried here, but I can't remember him of the top of my head. According to Wikipedia, King Victor Emanuel is also buried here.
Outside the Pantheon, we saw this old lady who was begging for money. She was having a lot of difficulty standing up. Some of the kids called her a "gypsy faker," because A.B. had warned us about this kind of thing, but I still felt sorry for her.
After the Pantheon, we went to the Piazza Navona which was one of the high points of the trip for me. There were a bunch of artists who did sketches and things, and this lady who would do tableus, and these guys who played Stairway to Heaven. I also got my dad cheated out of two euros when some guy tied some string around my wrist. In my defence I didn't know what was going on. There was also a wicked cool fountain called the Four Rivers Fountain, that has statues representing the major rivers of Europe (the Danube), Asia (The Ganges), Africa (The Nile), and the Americas (the Rio de la Plata). I like this area because it was very artsy and had a bunch of artists selling there paintings and people who would do sketches and caricatures of you.
After that we walked thru some old ruins on the way to the bus so we could go to our hotel outside of Rome. We also saw an old bath house, that I thought would be a great place to play live-action Dungeons and Dragons. The hotel in question was very Catholic, and was frequented by people on pilgramiges to the Vatican. Lots of people complained about how cold the beds were, but I didn't mind.
That is Day 2 of my trip to Rome. To go to Day 1 of my Europe Trip, press here. To go to Day 3 of my Europe Trip, Press Here.
2 comments:
Very cool, writer. What is a "gypsy facer" and how did you get your dad cheated out of two euros by getting a string tied around your wrist?
I meant gypsy faker, I probubly spelt it wrong. I don't know if they were faking or not.
And I really didn't get Dad into it, I was just standing and this guy came up to me and went about tying a few strings in this pattern around my wrist and said I needed to give him five euros (the euro being the currancy of the European Union, which Italy and Greece are apart). Dad gave him two. I lost the bracelet, and it's probubly in a Hotel in Athens somewhere.
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