Friday 7.06.07
Traveling to Rome
We started the day with a trek to Rome, our final destination in Italy. We travelled by bus, metro and by foot to get to the Marco Polo Hotel in Rome. Let's just say that it was a long trip and leave it at that :(
After arriving at the hotel, we all scrambled to get ready for our 3pm appointment to at the Colosseum. We took a bus to the metro to the Colosseum and made it there in just the nick of time. The colosseum is awesome and I had a hard time believing that it has been around for 1900 years. It is also hard to believe that it was the site of incredibly violent gladiator games and even the martyrdom of early Christians.
Not long after arriving, Marie, Keighley, Tiffany and I met up with TJ (Tiddly-D), Marie's newphew and his new bride, Mel. They are a cute couple, even though TJ is like two feet taller than Mel. Mel was determined to see all of the Colosseum, while Keighley was just glad to see a familiar face. We managed to get some great pics of the big C and then we emerged into the blistering sun on the prowl for bottled water and a meal. Tiffany and I decided to let Marie and Keighley have some alone time with TJ and Mel. So they went off shopping, while we went to find some food. We walked for a while looking for the Pantheon and ended up going by the Monument of Vittorio Emanuelle II, the place where Mussolini gave many of his speeches.
A couple of hours later, after a meal and visit to a local music store, we met up with the gang at a restaurant in front of the Pantheon. Since TJ and Mel were only in Rome for the day, they had to leave after dinner. So the gals and I decided to go see what was inside the Pantheon. Inside the Pantheon, which is an old church, there are alot of paintings on marble walls. The weird thing about the Pantheon is that at the top of the massive dome, there is a hole, which is completely open. We couldn't figure out why there wasn't massive amounts of bird poop on the floor. But after doing a quick check on Wikipedia, we now know the story of the dome. The hole is the only source of light for the Pantheon and the only source of air ventilation. When it rains, the water that falls inside is automatically drained away by tiny holes in the floor.
Here's the funny thing about the Pantheon...When it's time to close, a lady announces it on a microphone sort of the way Target announces that you have ten minutes to bring your purchases up to the front counter before they throw you out of the store.
After the Pantheon, we headed over to the Trevi Fountain, which was very cool even though every other tourist in Rome had descended on the fountain. The rumor about the Trevi Fountain is that if you throw in some money, you'll come back to Rome. It's a good thing that I'm not given to superstition. My thinking is that if I keep my money, I'll be closer to going back to Rome.
Not far from the fountain, we came upon a marble shop that had a ton of things carved out of marble. We were really impressed at first because they seemed to be selling fruit at 11pm...that is until we realized that the super realistic fruit was actually made of marble and that we weren't supposed to touch it. We had a really good laugh and crank called Marie's sister Julie.
We started the day with a trek to Rome, our final destination in Italy. We travelled by bus, metro and by foot to get to the Marco Polo Hotel in Rome. Let's just say that it was a long trip and leave it at that :(
After arriving at the hotel, we all scrambled to get ready for our 3pm appointment to at the Colosseum. We took a bus to the metro to the Colosseum and made it there in just the nick of time. The colosseum is awesome and I had a hard time believing that it has been around for 1900 years. It is also hard to believe that it was the site of incredibly violent gladiator games and even the martyrdom of early Christians.
Not long after arriving, Marie, Keighley, Tiffany and I met up with TJ (Tiddly-D), Marie's newphew and his new bride, Mel. They are a cute couple, even though TJ is like two feet taller than Mel. Mel was determined to see all of the Colosseum, while Keighley was just glad to see a familiar face. We managed to get some great pics of the big C and then we emerged into the blistering sun on the prowl for bottled water and a meal. Tiffany and I decided to let Marie and Keighley have some alone time with TJ and Mel. So they went off shopping, while we went to find some food. We walked for a while looking for the Pantheon and ended up going by the Monument of Vittorio Emanuelle II, the place where Mussolini gave many of his speeches.
A couple of hours later, after a meal and visit to a local music store, we met up with the gang at a restaurant in front of the Pantheon. Since TJ and Mel were only in Rome for the day, they had to leave after dinner. So the gals and I decided to go see what was inside the Pantheon. Inside the Pantheon, which is an old church, there are alot of paintings on marble walls. The weird thing about the Pantheon is that at the top of the massive dome, there is a hole, which is completely open. We couldn't figure out why there wasn't massive amounts of bird poop on the floor. But after doing a quick check on Wikipedia, we now know the story of the dome. The hole is the only source of light for the Pantheon and the only source of air ventilation. When it rains, the water that falls inside is automatically drained away by tiny holes in the floor.Here's the funny thing about the Pantheon...When it's time to close, a lady announces it on a microphone sort of the way Target announces that you have ten minutes to bring your purchases up to the front counter before they throw you out of the store.
After the Pantheon, we headed over to the Trevi Fountain, which was very cool even though every other tourist in Rome had descended on the fountain. The rumor about the Trevi Fountain is that if you throw in some money, you'll come back to Rome. It's a good thing that I'm not given to superstition. My thinking is that if I keep my money, I'll be closer to going back to Rome.
Not far from the fountain, we came upon a marble shop that had a ton of things carved out of marble. We were really impressed at first because they seemed to be selling fruit at 11pm...that is until we realized that the super realistic fruit was actually made of marble and that we weren't supposed to touch it. We had a really good laugh and crank called Marie's sister Julie.
