Travel Wednesday - My Love Affair with Rome

When we did our Mediterranean cruise, Rome was the city of origin that we needed to fly into.  Being adventurous souls my husband and I decided to go early and spend a few days in Rome.  Am I glad we did!  I went expecting to find an interesting (yes, it was) big city with lots of ruins and statues, but ended up falling in love with the food, the people and the energy of the city, as well as the art.

Our hotel perched high up on a hill.  Exercise wasn’t an issue during the three days we spent exploring Rome.  We never took the subway and the only buses were the ones used on our two tours.



A shot of the Coliseum from the Forum

The first tour out to the Coliseum and the Forum was…okay at best.  The tour guides weren’t impressive and we could have learned as much (or more) from reading a guide book, taking a bus across town and paying admission…plus it would have been less expensive.

The animals and their food (people) were kept here under the Coliseum

 

Our other tour…well worth the cost!  The Angels & Demons tour focused around the locations in the Dan Brown novel.  This was a small tour and the guides were terrific.  The church…not so happy with the tour idea.  In fact, one of the locations we stopped our guides couldn’t go in.  They told us which location to find the statue in the book and then we came back out to ask our questions.  At another location, the referenced statue was covered up…hmmm, wonder why?

The meetup location for the Angels and Demons Tour

After the tour ended by the fountain in St. Peter’s square, husband and I decided a walk back to the hotel would be faster (did I mention there was a transportation strike that day) and headed out.  Lots of footsteps later, and a few breaks, we were happy to see the entrance to our home away from home.

One of the many breaks...do you believe 'hot & tired'

One of the delights in our stay was the food.  Breakfast at the hotel started us off and no matter where we decided to grab a bit, our meal was never disappointing.  All of the walking gave me a good excuse to devour so much of the food...after all, a gal has to keep her energy up...right?

The Spanish Steps...walking up and down these will burn lots of calories...and we did numerous times.

Even though we don’t speak Italian, the people we interacted with from those geared toward tourists to the small out-of- the-way shops that didn’t speak a lot of English, we enjoyed our interaction.  I think laughter is an international language and we always managed to communicate enough to find something to laugh over.

Would I go back to Roma…only if given the opportunity!  Call Rome what you wish as far as nicknames…the Eternal City, the City of the Seven Hills, the City of Love, but for me, it will always be a City of My Heart.

NOOK READER CONTEST…In Monday’s blog (Feb. 11^th) what caused me to lose track of time on Sunday?  Email your answer to lizzietleaf(at)comcast(dot)net to enter the drawing.  The winner will be announced in the Monday, February 18^th blog.