In planning a trip as I mentioned, you make choices and by doing so, you leave unseen other amazing things. Making the choices for Tuesday became a bit problematic during the planning stage. As Wednesday was our MOST important day, I wanted to make sure that we weren't exhausted so I didn't want to over do on Tuesday. After all we would have been touring for 11 days by now and maybe we would need a rest day. I toyed with the option of heading to the beach which was possible by train and by tours, but worried again that it might be too much. We thought about just Gary and I going as it is hard to pass up the opportunity to put your feet into a new sea or walk along another sandy beach as we had never seen the Mediterranean Sea. In the end, we decided to leave it open so that if needed we could rest or figure out our own plans on the fly. And why I hope that someday I might see the Mediterranean Sea and walk along some of its amazing beaches, I think we made a good choice. It was nice not to have to get up first thing in the morning and head somewhere.
We decided to take a city bus tour on a doubledecker bus which had nine or ten stops. You could plug in and listen to music and history of the spots. Then you could choose to get on and off at whatever stop you wanted. I had some ideas of where to get off and on but we left it open for whatever people wanted to do and off we went.
Many times these narrow roads are two-way traffic. In a city built so many years ago and long before cars, narrow streets are the norm.
Look how tight for one small car on this street---
The colors of the city---
This is the Tiber River with St. Peter Basilica in the center back... Because of the busyness of the Vatican our tour ran out of time before we actually got to the square in front of St. Peters, so we appreciated the views we had today as we wandered around the river (and crossed a few more bridges including the one in this photo.)
Stairs down to the walkway along the river. Again Charon was willing to make the journey down by the river with me while Gary, Mom Hall, Vonette, and Gary K. took the upper route.
It often amazes me to see plants growing out of cracks in cement walls. When I think how hard it is to get plants to grow in my yard, this determination is surprising.
From the river's edge--bridges--
I love the light and dark of this shot---
Like in Paris and London, the details on the bridges are amazing and unique. I am sure that they each have a story to share---
Pigeons enjoying some leftovers as we wait for our lunch back by the hotel---
After lunch, Charon and I head back to the bus (as we had a one day ride all you want pass) and headed out as we had seen another stop we wanted to get off at. Everyone else headed to the hotel for a rest and game playing break.
I took this photo but it looks almost like a painting to me, except for the heads of people on the bottom. The sky and clouds and the trees are a good contrast to the buildings.
This is a very old site in downtown Rome which predates almost everything else in the city. Most of it is located under the present street level because repeated development has covered most of the very ancient buildings. This is so common that you can not build anywhere in Rome without have an archaeologist study done to determine what is underground. If anything is found, you can't build until it is surveyed and decisions can be made about what to do with what is found.
This was in one of the plazas and was a beautiful building which both Charon and I thought was worth another look. The fountain was massive as the whole building with so many details statues and engravings on the walls. I think it was a government building at different times in its history.
This is a spot similar to our tomb on the Unknown soildier. It is guarded constantly by members of the armed forces.
Again--roof tops are amazing in Rome!
We found everyone else playing games in the 4th floor lobby where we all had rooms. We pulled chairs from our rooms and used a small lamp table and played games most nights. The staff and the other people in the hotel thought it was great. We enjoyed our hotel in Rome as well. Again it was small with small but very clean rooms and friendly staff (although one of the staff was not so good at giving directions or perhaps my understanding of her directions was a bit shaky.)
The hotel across from our window had some amazing things along its upper floor. It reminded me of something you would see in Las Vegas--except this was really Rome and these things belong here.
We ate a simple dinner from a local grocery store, played games, and then headed to bed. Tomorrow was the BIG day!
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