I went to the Dago motherland a couple of weeks back and had a great time. That is a chaotic place, just my style. I discovered very quickly that there is no such thing as traffic laws in Rome, only traffic suggestions. You go as fast as you can and put your car where ever you can fit it on the road. It was quite the adventurous taxi ride from the airport to the hostel.
On the first day there, I get in in the evening, so the day is pretty much gone at that point. I decided to wander around Rome for the evening near where I was staying. As I was walking around, I noticed that there wasn't much activity on the streets, which seemed odd for a Saturday evening. Then I noticed that every bar I walked by was filled with people completely focused on the televisions. Everyone in the bar, including on duty police were entirely involved in watching A.S. Roma play soccer. These people love them some soccer.
Later on, I tried to go back to the Hostel to get a drink and was hopelessly lost for a couple of hours before I finally stumbled upon it. Being lost in a place where no signs are in English, it was just like my first days in Holland, good times.
The next day, I walked all over the city, which is much larger than the, so called, map implied. I finally got to the ancient part of the city and the first thing I see is the Colosseum, which is much larger and more grand than I was expecting. I was expecting something the size of an arena, but I found something more the scale of Tiger Stadium and the like. Very impressive. From there I wandered about the Forum and the Circus Maximus. It's really humbling to walk amongst man made structures that are well over 2000 years old.
From there, I walked up to the Teatro Marcello and the old Jewish Ghetto, which are in the same spot, and then to the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, which is the giant white structure with the winged horses. It is an Italian Government building that also housed the National museum, which was not very impressive, considering the history surrounding that country.
I kept walking about, seeing some more ancient Roman forums, and then the Trevi fountain, which I later learned was just a fountain that some rich guy stuck on the front of his house to show off in the 18th century.
At the end of the day, I went back to the Hostel to relax for a bit, and went out and got liquored up with some fellow travelers.
The rest of my stay consisted of more of the same. Seeing beautiful and historic sights, I could spend days in the Vatican museum, and then going and getting liquored up in the evening. Good times.
On that note, I took a metric shitload of photos whilst in Rome so instead of posting them all here, I will add a link to where they are at and you can paruse them for yourselves. You are all grown ass people, I think you can handle it.
said link: http://www.pbase.com/msimon8/rome
And on that note, I will leave you with a few photos that need elaboration.
When I get to Da Vinci airport, these are my first sights, the Italians aren't very good at keeping things running, as this was a theme throughout the weekend.
These were all over town, I think the water was fresh and potable, but I wasn't going to test it. I later saw a hobo washing some clothes at one, at least he was keeping clean.
The Swiss are apparently good enough to guard the Vatican, but their knives aren't allowed, outrageous.
This political party is not a fan of Osama Bin Laden, such a bold stance.
It actually translates to "Don't take the lord's name in vain" "no to fundamentalism"
hearkening back to the ancient times, SPQR was all over the public works in this town.
And finally, some good old slandering of George W. Bush, somehow I doubt there is any graffiti in the US referring to Romano Prodi in a derogatory fashion.
I'm not sure exactly what it translates to, but its some sort of Italian swear.
That is all for now, stay tuned for the exciting story of the disaster that was my trip back to Holland, and the London weekend.
More to come (soon)
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