Friday, August 16, 2013

Day 15 -Thursday July 4th, 2013 - Rome





Happy 4th of July! This is my second Independence Day away from America in a row. I am going to try really hard to be in America next July 4th. I was really missing the BBQ food (especially an all-American beef hot dog and baked beans,) family/friend gatherings, red, white and blue, parades, American flags and fireworks! But we had a nice relaxing day in Rome. We woke up just in time to make if to breakfast before it closed. Then we took our time getting ready and didn't leave the room till close to noon. We easily navigated our way to the Trevi Fount. We felt like two locals with how well we remembered how to get around. We enjoyed looking in at the shops and people watching. Then we went down to check out this new tourist activity called the time elevator. It was a 5D film that incorporated 3D viewing, moving, feeling and smelling. There were three film options and since we didn't have anything else to do we decided to do all three. The first was a haunted house film. It was really dumb and pointless. The only thing it did was make me motion sick. For the next film I exiled myself to a cart that did not move. The second film was called the evolution of time. It covered the beginning of the planet and how life was started. It was interesting and a little better than the haunted mansion one. The final film was on the history or Rome. That one was really neat and the main attraction. It covered several historical events important to the nearly 3,000 year old city. I enjoyed it. Mike choose to stay in the moving cart and ended up motion sick by the end. I was so glad I switched, even though it meant I sat by myself in the corner I much preferred that to motion sickness. After the movie ended we continued on down the street to see the Colosseum again. Mike was kinda of the "been there, done that" attitude  with a lot of the things in Rome and since it was so hot I didn't care to walk around too much. So we found a good shady spot and listened to our book for a good half hour or so. Then we decided to go find some place for a late lunch/ early dinner. It's always hard to find a place to eat. There are so many restaurants claiming they are wonderful and begging you to sit down, but how do you know if they are any good. My body was in need of some veggies. I wanted a green salad with lettuce and veggies. A lot of places we pasted didn't have salads on the menu. I found only a few along our way but for one reason or another passed them up. We finally came to one that looked really nice by the Trevi fountain. It had a salad that sounded good on the menu, so we decided to stay. The ambiance was nice, but the servers were a little rude, and rushed us. We decided on the salad and a pasta dish. When it finally came the salad was not at all what I had expected and tasted terrible. The pasta was about the same, way to salty and very under cooked. It was so terrible. Then of course when we got the bill they had added there service charge to it, which just ticked me off because all they did to "serve" me was take my order and bring the food to me. I was so annoyed. We left them a terrible review on trip advisor but it seems everyone else hates them too. That's the problem with those places they feed on tourist passing by who don't have the mind to check on trip advisor to see what kind of reviews they go. Mike and I will be doing that from now on, regardless of international data charges. After our very disappointing lunch we walked over to the Pantheon. On our way over we passed the government building. There were tons of cars and camera there, so we stuck around to see what the fuss was all about. Of course we didn't recognize anyone and even after 8 min of watching still weren't sure what we were looking at. When we got to the pantheon we went inside, sat on the pews and listened to our book. I'm not sure if that was disrespectful or not, I don't know how often they actually use it (if at all) for church services so we figured it wasn't to bad. While we were there not one but two high school choirs came in to sing. They both were very good and sang in Latin. It made me miss my days in Delphian. The second choir was huge and to loud to hear over them, even with our ear buds in so we went outside. We saw some African dudes (in Brazilian clothes) fighting with an accordion player for the space to perform. Unfortunately, the three of them beat the one of him and the Africans took over with their banging and off key chanting. So we decided it was time to go get gelato. We went to Gioletti's and ordered a sundae with chocolate and Oreo gelato, divine! We also had passed a place on the way to the pantheon that advertised 150 flavors so we went back to check that out. There selection was impressive, everything but chocolate chip cookie dough ;( I was thinking maybe their focus was quantity over quality and almost said no when I saw the 4.5 trip advisor rating posted and decided to give it a go. I was glad I did, heavenly! I shared a giant cone with Mike, we got peanut butter, kit-kat, Biscotto and mars bar flavors. So good! Then we headed back to the Trevi Fountain so I could toss my coin in. As soon as we got there is started raining. Of course it was the one day I was not carrying the umbrella and ponchos. We huddled under a building ledge to stay dry. The rain really came down hard at some points scaring a lot of people away. I decided it wasn't terrible and snuck a peek at the fountain. No one was there! Everyone one had run for cover. I ran up to get some pictures. I guess I signaled everyone else. I snapped 2 or 3 pictures before it got packed again. It was cool while it lasted. Mike came over and took a few pictures of me and I threw my coin in. Unfortunately, it was over the wrong shoulder, so I hope it still works. Then we started back for the hotel. We passed a Burger King and decided our sweet gelato over load made us hungry for something salty. We went in and orders a few nuggets and fries to balance it out. That's what I call a well balanced diet, sweet and salty. Lol. I can't wait to stop eating out when I get home! Then we walked up the Spanish Steps to our hotel. We pack up our things, facetimed with family, reminisced about the Fourth of July and eventually listened to one more chapter before bed. We are addicted!




















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