I just had peaches for breakfast.
The owner of the next B&B drove us over to his place to drop off our bags for the day before heading to the Borghese Gallery. A little odd. But okay.
The city of Rome was on strike so government buildings were all closing early. Like, 11am. Needless to say, we had to book it.
The man, Daniel, gave us bad directions (due to the language barrier) which left us in a running stressed out frenzy trying to make it in time.
We barely made it before they stopped letting people in.
We saw Bernini's masterpieces, such as David and the Rape of Proserpine. <<< This was my favorite. The detail was incredible!! The most beautiful sculpture I had ever seen. No doubt, Bernini was the master.
We took a taxi (after a detour to the Ferrari dealership) to the Roman Forum (which ended up being closed due to the city strike) but it wasn't too bad because we basically got to see all the ruins anyways from the outside gates.
The nice thing about the forum being closed - no tourists in our pictures! :D
Way to look on the bright side ya?
We walked up the steps to the Titus arch and Capitol Hill. Once again, incredible architecture.
Carved marble = Biene!!
We took a 14 euro elevator trip to the top of the Victor Emmanuel Monument Building. The heaviest building in the world. It had marble colomns and an incredible statue on top of the building of a guard on a horse. The horses foot alone was almost as big as me! I wonder how they got that up there before machinery. Amazing.
We met a family from New Jersey (which was exciting because its super rare to meet someone who speaks American haha. Most tourists are Europeans!) and their son who has been studying in Italy since February.
He was very helpful giving tipson how to book trains (via trenitalia.com) and what kind of wine to get in Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre. (Sciacchetra)
We took the lift back down and began our trek to our next stop - the Pantheon. We walked in with a huge crowd of tourists to the huge (again) perfectly round dome cathedral. This is where many were buried including Rafael.
The Oculos (sp?) let in a bright beam of light that lit up the entire building. Incredible.
By the time we left here I realized that I had been running on airplane food, peaches and salad for the last 4 days so we looked for an Italian McDonalds. Turns out they weren't very popular because all the locations were out of business.
So we split a fettuchini alfredo outside the Pantheon. Mushroomy, but super delish!
An accordion player, who was actually quite talented, serenaded us with classic romantic Italian music, so we gave him our spare change in appreciation. It was a perfect Italian lunch.
Next we found an internet cafe to book our train tickets (thanks to Jersey kid's advice) to Cinque Terre & Pisa tomorrow. A little stressful & confusing, but once again we conquered.
We kept walking until we arrived at the beautiful Treve fountain. As the Romans do, once again, it was gynormous. the sound of water echoed through the square where a huge crowd was gathered. We could see why. The fountain was amazing.
Next, we decided to get some gelato. :) Vanilla in a waffle cone. Mmm! While we ate we met an older couple from England, who now live in Spain & pretty much any other country they feel like driving their VW camper van to. They were so pleasant to talk to. We exchanged tips & talked about our Italy experiences so far. They say when we get old like them Angelo should wear a John Wayne hat like the man, and we should travel everywhere.
I'm down.
We decided to start walking back towards the Pantheon to where our dinner place would be.
Dinner was ravilois (again) at a cute back door family owned restaurant called "Osteria di Mario". It was delicious, but the service was lousy. It took 5 tries and 20 min to get the check!
After that was done we walked to the main street to find a taxi back to the bed and breakfast to meet the man who had our bags and to get keys to our room.
We waited outside when we got there for his sister who had the keys. So we talked for a few minutes. it went something like this:
Daniel: Ah! Villa Borghese! The most beautiful museum in di world!
Angelo: Better than the Luve???
Daniel: Ah, I've never been. Italians don't got to Frnace. We're not friends. But the Villa Borghese is the best in the world!
When his sister got there he introduced Angelo and I "Angelo Parisi from Sacramento!" Hemust had said it 5 times. He loved that Angelo was an American with an Italian name. LOVED IT.
Once we got to our room we went straight to sleep, exhausted from the day.
And thats all for now!
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