Roma Continued . . .
Rome Day 4 and 5
My Birthday. Happy Birthday to myself. Cassidy and I got out the door early (on a relative scale) to go run some errands and then eventually make it to the Coliseum and Forum. We made it to the American Embassy to pick up his passport which was renewed and then walked over to the Coliseum area. We watched "Gladiator" the night before on the computer and so it was really a treat to be able to walk down the block to the Coliseum and visualize what we saw with the special effects the night before.
This is a picture from the Via Veneto which is the street that the American Embassy is located. This is a spot that I actually remember walking down when we were here five years ago.
We made it to the Coliseum and it was really breathtaking. They have renovated it so the people can walk across the middle and get a good look strait down into the old basement below.
They have also enabled people to walk up stairs through an exhibit which gives some information on the structure and the gladiators. To be honest, the best education I got was watching "Gladiator" the night before.
Rome Day 5
The four of us went to lunch at a
place called "Alfredo's" which was one of the few places that
was open in Rome because the Romans flee to the mountains and beach during August.
We had a terrific lunch and then topped it off with the world's best watermelon.
(voted by Cassidy and myself)
It was about 2:30 and
we were the last ones in the restaurant when they changed the music from Dean
Martin and Frank Sinatra to Sly and the Family Stone.* We thought that the
kitchen staff was cleaning up and was getting tired and so they changed the
music. I soon found out that the Mr. Lundin had the staff bring out a
little cake with a candle in it as the waiters were singing "Happy
Birthday," in Italian. It was hilarious.
Cassidy, Craig and myself took a walk to the other side of
the Tiber to an area called Trastevere. We walked up a series of steps and
hills to get to Bramante's "Il tempieto" which was Bramante's
first attempt to build a structure that was exacting to the specifications
of old roman architecture. Here's a picture of the temple dated around
1503.
We
hit Pantheon on the way back while the sun was setting.
That night Cassidy and I walked to a pizza place on the
way to a piazza called Campo Novella. We sat next to two girls, one who
spoke decent English and another who was a flight attendant who spoke very little.
The pizza was great but the view was better.
The two of us then went back to that American Bar. We sat down next to
a couple from England, Theo and Lucy. We had a great time and talked about
a little bit of everything. The two of them had also just graduated from
college and were in Rome for a couple of days. We asked them where to
go in England since we will be there shortly. We had a great night and
what was even better is that we're going to catch up with the two of them when
we get to London.
*Thanks to Coach Cooke for me knowing Sly and the Family Stone