Caesaria

In hindsight, if I could have spent one more night anyplace in Israel, I would have given myself an overnight at Caesaria, and one full day in the park.

Easily my favorite stop of the trip, Caesaria, or as all of the signs spell it along the freeways: Quasaryya (the locals pronounce it KWaysaar-ya, don't forget to roll the "r".)

But we all know that I have an affinity for ancient Roman towns. And oh, Caesaria is such a lovely example of a quintessentially Roman town!

From the amphiteater overlooking the sea to hippodrome and public baths with their AMAZING mosaic floors, this place is truly a wonder.

 One of the first sights from the entrance gate, the Amphitheater

 Shows are staged today in this restored amphitheater. Gorgeous view and a show! 

One of the restored mosaics, and pools at the Palace.

 Public Bathhouse

 One of the amazing mosaics at the PUBLIC Bathhouse. The detail!!

 The long, flat stretch is called the Hippodrome. It's where chariot races were held.

FAQs:
Get there: By renting a car. It's located 45 minutes (driving) north of Tel Aviv. (Two buses, 76 and 77 also run to Caesaria.)
Cost: Normal, adult admission: 36 NIS (Around $9 US)
Bring: Sunscreen, plenty of water (You'll do a lot of walking)
Allow: 1 full day if you're an explorer. For just the general gist, allow 3-4 hours.
Misc: There are restaurants of many varieties near the medieval section of the city, most are quite pricey. For a less expensive option, try the pizza/gelatto shop. Yum!

Caesaria's official Website

Capture the Color Photography Contest

www.travelsupermarket.com is hosting a clever photography contest. Bloggers can enter by publishing a blog post of photos that capture the colors blue, green, yellow, white and red.

Here's my entry:

YELLOW: 

 I shot this photo on my first trip to Rome, in 2009. Why it took me until 2009 to visit Rome, I have no clue. I fell completely in love with the old, romantic, dirty, historic, fabulous city immediately, but especially with the buttery yellow color I saw everywhere, from the buildings to the sky.

BLUE:

While in Utah for a friend's wedding, I took a drive out to remote Saltair to see the weird salt/sand flats and the Salt Lake. A storm moved through during my time there and this is one of the really cool images from that day. The sky was so gray and ominous one moment and the next moment it opened up and *Bam* hello, gorgeous blue!

RED: 

My first taste of Greece was sampled via Sailboat. I snapped this photo of my chipped, red-polished toes just before jumping into the 19ft of beckoning, brilliant blue-green waters in the cove of a tiny, near-deserted island in the Greek Dodecanese Islands. (Of course, I put the camera down first.)

GREEN:

Exploring the beautiful Wadi Rum Preserve in Jordan was, at times, kind of like being on a driving version of Disney's Jungle Cruise. I think good ol' Walt must have visited this place and tried to mimic it's utterly amazing, exploratory (Indiana Jones-ish) feel. Pink sands, crystal clear starry skies at night and an unforgettable time staying overnight with the Bedouins in Wadi Rum were topped only by my falling head over heels for this amazing, faded old army-green truck. I was offered it, as part of my dowry, if I agreed to marry the local Sheik. Sadly, I had to leave the truck, and the Sheik behind.

WHITE:

While walking across one of Stockholm's many, many bridges, (the city was built on 14 islands) I happened to look down and see this gorgeous, swirly black body of water, almost oily looking it was so black. As I pulled my camera out, several swans, native birds to that region of the world, but beautifully exotic in mine, paddled into the area. I quickly fired off several shots and was super excited about this one.

All images Copyright Christy Warnick, 2012 

For the contest, I'm nominating: @sweetbookshelf, @kellywestover_, @itravel81, @the_HoliDaze, @natthefatrat and @OopseyDaisy917

To check out this fab photo contest, click here: http://www.travelsupermarket.com/c/holidays/capture-the-colour/

The 2012 Calendar Project: March (v3.0)

Rome... again.

Yes, I know, this is my third iteration of the month of March. March was the first graphic I created... way back in February. Since then, the style of the graphics evolved. I tried to make March conform to the rest with version 2.0, but failed. I think it's because Rome is my favorite place. I wanted the page to be SUPER SPECIALLY AWESOME. No pressure, right?

Well, I finally made something I can live with. I promise, there will be no more versions of March for this Calendar, because, well, I ordered the Calendar. Done! Shazaam! Photos will be posted when the finished product is received.

Without further adieu, the finalized March graphic:

2012 Calendar Project: March, Revised

March bugged me. And it didn't match any of the others. So I fixed it. Try this one on for size:

“While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand;
When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall;
And when Rome falls - the World.”
        -Lord Byron

2012 Calendar Project: March

I've decided to make my own calendar for 2012. As it's already January and it'll take me a little while to create the graphics I want, I'll be beginning my calendar in March. I may extend it through 2013. Who knows?

Here's the deal: I'll be taking my photography from various cities/countries/spots on the planet and creating a piece of artwork of sorts for each selection. I mean to add a quote about the spot as well. I've completed a draft for my first calendar page, what do you think? (Click on it to view larger)

We'll begin with Rome. Because it's my favorite place. Because it's amazing. Because "The ides of March" happens in, uh, March. Duh. Because, why not?

"Pray in Rome. God Will Hear You Better."

I spent a Sunday in Rome. I'd wanted to do that for a long while. You see, I wanted to go to church in Rome.

And just to clarify, I'm not Catholic. I'm Mormon. I didn't go to see the Pope or go to Catholic Mass in Vatican City. I'd visited Vatican city the day before and it was really something. Kind of overwhelmingly amazing to be surrounded by such immense grandeur. See what I mean?:

St. Peter's

No matter what faith you are, can't you see the appeal? There I was, in a country that had within itself, an entire other country entirely devoted to faith. And I can go to a chapel of my faith there and attend a meeting. Pretty cool. There is something so comforting about traveling around the planet and knowing that on Sunday, wherever I am, I can find a chapel of my faith and be welcomed, safe and embraced simply for being there. It's an immediate comfort zone, even in the most foreign (to me) places imaginable.

I also want to go to church in Israel (LDS Church). Maybe next year?

Well, after an eventful day of wandering and sightseeing Saturday, a day filled with street food and Hot Italian men dressed in well-cut suits and thinking about renting a scooter and watching the local con men pick up sugar-mama travelers from my dinner tavolo at La Carbonara in the Piazza di Campidoglio, followed by Gelato and a Nutella filled crepe (yes, both, I'm not ashamed to say it. It was GOOD!)

After all of that wonder and adventure I returned exhausted to my great little hotel and posted a line or two about my amazing day in Roma and how I was going to find Church the next day on Facebook (iphone + free wifi in hotel = Fabulous!).

Not two minutes later I had a reply to my status update. My friend Emma had messaged me. (I've known Emma for YEARS... about 16... but never met because she's Australian and we were penpals growing up... back in the dark ages when kids used to have penpals! I will make it to Australia soon and meet Emma!) Emma's husband's best mate, Alessandro is an Italian LDS guy living in Rome with his wife and children. Emma sent Alessandro a message and within ten minutes I had his phone number and instructions to call and Alessandro and his wife would help me get to Church.

I mean seriously, ask and ye shall receive! And I really hadn't even "asked," only casually mentioned that I wanted to go to church in Rome. That's some serious prayer answering.

So I called. And the next morning I set out on foot to catch a train to catch the metro to meet Alessandro and Sara and go to church. And I should I have taken a bus to get to the train. It took WAY longer to get to the train than I could have imagined. But eventually I made it and was picked up and ushered off to church, and slipped into the last few minutes of Relief Society.

(NB: In the LDS church, we go to church for three hours. Sacrament meeting, the "general" meeting for everyone to attend together and listen to talks and take the Sacrament. Sunday school is split into smaller groups - groups for children, and young adults and the adults. And then the third hour is split into auxillaries: Relief Society for the adult women, Priesthood, for the adult men, Primary for the children and Young Men/Young Women for the 12-18 year old boys/girls. In this congregation, lucky for me, the Relief Society hour met first, followed by Sunday school and then Sacrament Meeting.)

After a lovely lesson in Italian (from what I understood!), we moved to Sunday school, and I attended a meeting for the Young Single Adults (Singles aged 18-31), that was actually taught by my host, Alessandro. We all introduced ourselves and I found myself to be in the midst of an incredibly varied group of Italian, African, South American and American bunch. The lesson was mostly in Italian, but Alessandro was prepared to translate for me. However, during introductions I broke out my broken Italian, much to the shock (and relief at not having to translate everything) of everyone in the room (I was even complimented on my Italian! Crazy!)

After church, I was invited to spend the afternoon with my hosts and join them at Lunch hosted by a wonderful Romanian single mother of three teenage daughters.

Just getting to the house was an adventure! We caravaned over, following another car, weaving through the city. When we were almost there, a car accident! The car in front of us had been hit by another car. Alessandro hopped out of the car, preparing to be a witness and do battle with the at-fault party, Italian style (ie: with much shouting and hand gestures). But instead he returned in a few minutes, amazed because the at-fault party admitted fault and that was that. Alessandro shook his head and said "this is non normale, not Italian. The man's wife even asked him why he admitted fault!" Que Sera. We moved on to lunch.

You know how the movies show those amazing lunches spent in the Italian countryside? The ones in vineyards with wine and food and laughter and fun? Well, that's exactly how this lunch was.

Minus the countryside and the wine and the vineyard.

It was an afternoon of lovely laughter and delightful people with delicious food. It was about a feeling of love and brotherhood, Fraternita.

The Romaniana Mama and I tried to speak together, she with her broken Italian and Me with mine, and we ended up bonding over expressive hand gestures and a Mozzarella-Tomato salad.

After lunch I was dropped back at the metro by my amazing new friends. And I took the metro to a stop at Vatican city, convinced that I could find my way back from there.

All was well for a good while. I was one with my city map. I walked along the old streets and finally found the wall that encircled Vatican City. And then I looked to the right! And lo and behold, the heavens parted and there in front of me was the stuff of legends. I'd been told about this place by a friend who'd lived in Rome:

It was the temple of Gelato. 
The home to the world's best Ice Cream. Old Bridge Gelateria.

I had looked for this place the previous day and was unsuccessful in my search.  Tucked away on a tiny half-street, the line stretched the length of the road and was PACKED with Italians. I was in the right place, boy-o. Not a tourist (apart from me) to be seen. And the Gelato was simply divine. Fluffy, light, dense, rich, AMAZING. Seriously. Get lost in Rome just to find this place. So worth it!

And then, with my distractingly amazing Gelato in hand, I proceeded to follow the walls of Vatican city IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.

That's right, I walked the perimeter of the ENTIRE Vatican city. Wah-Wah.
BTW: Vatican city is much bigger than I expected it to be. Especially because I was walking around it. But hey, at least I know where the entrance to the museum is for next trip.


The ice cream was worth the long treck.

And that's how I spent an amazing Sunday afternoon in Roma.

Wrapping up Spring 2010 with Rome

A short flight from Malta back to Fiumicino took me home again to the city of my dreams.

I was to have three more marvelous days in La Cita Eterna before going back to Northern California.

Having been in Rome only a few weeks before, I knew the immense amount of effort it would take to get from Fiumicino to Rome proper, and what it would cost. I also knew that this time I would be staying nowhere near Termini stazione (The main Train station) and lugging my large framepack around the city on the buses was not a good idea (They are generally quite crowded with very passionate Italians... who don't appreciate tourists taking up extra space with large backpacks. I've been told off before.) Plus, I was on the ragged side of being a traveler, being nearer the end of my journey than the beginning.
Did you know that there isn't a metro line that runs through the heart of ancient Rome? There's not. They're trying to build one, but it's proceeding ridiculously slowly because every few feet they drill they find another archaeological something or other and have to stop and let the historians come in and excavate, etc. So don't expect to see that metro line within the next ten years.

Anyhoo. I found the answer after leaving the baggage claim at the airport: Private car. Or, a shared private car. Less expensive than a taxi and much more comfortable. Much faster than the train/bus route. I paid 35 Euro (negotiated down from 45) and shared the back seat of a beautiful Mercedes with another American woman, who is the exact opposite of who I want to be when I grow up. (She was nice enough, but all in all a very narrow-minded person who I was surprised to find traveling at all... instead of sitting at home with her cats.) About halfway into the ride, our driver turned and tried to ask who wanted to be dropped off first, but she spoke verrrrrrrrry little English.

One semester of Italian to the rescue again! I translated for my fellow passenger and told the driver (a very fashionable bleached-blonde Italian woman) to drop me off last. We launched into as much conversation as my bad Italian and her bad English would allow, much to the disdain of the cat lady next to me. After dropping off cat lady, my driver and I laughed and chatted freely and then, out of the blue, she pulled the cab over to the side of a narrow, cobblestoned Roman road and motioned for me to hop out of the cab.

"Andiamo! A Surprise... per te!" (Let's go, a surprise for you.) So I hopped out and we walked into... a pasticeria (a Pastry bakery). She told the lady at the counter what she wanted and then motioned to the case and said "Pick something." It was a marvel of baked Italian goodies, that cold case. Sugared cookies and colored pastry, cremes whipped into delightful frenzies and stuffed into shells. I picked a Cannoli, because I hadn't had one in Italy yet. I went to my purse to pay and the driver said to me "No, no, no! Io pagare!... Because-a you are-a so sweet-a!"

I mean, really, if I didn't love Italians before, how could I help but love them now? Seriously?

She dropped me at the door of the tiny hotel I would be staying at, a Maison, got out, kissed me on both cheeks and wished me a wonderful stay in Roma.

Could you wish for a better beginning to a stay than that? I don't think so. (Well, if it had been a drop-dead hunka Italian man who had done it... that could have been a smidge better. ;)

The Giggles

Did you really think I'd stay away until February?  ;)

Have you ever had a piece of knowledge embedded into your memory bank that, when happened upon, makes you smile? It makes you elated, giddy, the shivery kind of happy that tickles your whole body. Of course you have. And that is how I feel right now. Like I have an awesome secret tucked away in the corner of my mind that is just aching to get out, stretch it's legs and make itself known to the world! Except in this case, it's not a secret at all. It's my happy thought. During the chaos of these recent days at work I can take it out and think about it and mellow the work stress away. I'll share it with you. Are you ready?

*Whispered*
ROME
Or, in a single word: Vacatioooooonnnnnnnn........ (It's better if you say it slowly. Obviously)
And yes, I am going to the Middle East too (yay!), but Rome is my personal epiphany.

That's it. All it takes to make me grin from ear to ear like a slap happy little nitwit. That place makes me giggle like a schoolgirl with delight. I wish I knew all of the reasons why. But then again, if I knew all of the reasons why, it probably wouldn't be quite so magical for me. Or maybe it would.

I've always felt a pull, a draw to Rome. Something inviting me there, beckoning me to behold. Ever since I opened that history book in Mr. LaRue's sixth grade class to the section on Rome and saw, in brilliant color, photos of marble busts, gold jewelry, the Colosseum and ancient textured walls. It was entrancing and I was enthralled with it. I even dressed a Barbie up like a Roman woman and had my Dad help me create a Roman chariot for my barbie horse to pull for a history assignment.

Okay, so this is NOT my Roman Barbie and Chariot. I googled Roman barbie and came back with this Roman Holiday (yes, like the movie!) Barbie. Pretty cool huh? My parents have a picture of my barbie creation somewhere... but it's in a closet... in the frozen north... in a box with a gazillion other photos... and it's not digital! Le Sigh. (Or since we are going for Italy: a sospirare.)

When finally I was able to visit Rome for the first time earlier this year, it did not disappoint! (as you might have guessed from my enthusiasm for the place) Instead, it renewed and reinvigorated my love for it. Have you ever had a magical day? Or three? A small part of your time on this earth where everything worked in your favor? The stars were aligned (if you believe in that sort of thing) and Lady Luck was your best friend? That happened to me in Rome. And like any respectable addict would, I want to go back for more! I'm hooked! Three days of being stopped in the streets by Italian men and asked for my phone number, given a bottle of wine, eating amazing pasta and Gelato, getting reamed out by a middle-aged Italian woman for running across the street in front of an ambulance (Yes, I add that to my list of good fortune because, hey, it happened in Italy. It was exciting. And ridiculous. And feeling the wrath of an Italian woman is just so quintessentially Italian!)

I've heard of many people feeling the same way about Paris.

"America is my country but Paris is my hometown" (Gertrude Stein)

Ditto for me. Except replace Paris with Rome (obviously).

I do like Paris quite a bit too, in case you were curious.

Just for now, I have a secret. I'll keep it in my pocket close to my heart and take it out to look at it when there's no one around.

What's your happy secret? Don't worry, I won't tell.

Roman Daydreams

Work has been boring lately. Seriously boring. It's the time of year. Things slow down in my department. So I've had a considerable amount of time to surf the internet, do homework (I'm taking an online class), facebook... but mostly, I check out travel deals and research hotels in Rome. Specifically hotels near the Pantheon. Having nothing to do at work for eight hours a day is a horrible little catalyst for my Italian (Roman) obsession.

You see I'm planning a two-week vacation for next spring. And it's going to be fantastic. After this spring's three-day Roman fling, I've been dreaming of going back. The past three days at work have even lent themselves to giving me time to daydream of strolling down the Via del Corso. Lunching on authentic pasta con pancetta in the Piazza del Popolo. Making short work of a dark cioccolatta e nutella gelatto con crema! And yes, even flirting with HOT Roman men, the self-same descendants of the ancient Romans, in fluent Italian. Perhaps I should have mentioned them first.

Just one problem with those daydreams. I don't speak Italian! But somehow in my daydreams I'm as fluent as an acrobat is lithe.

Okay, I speak a little Italian. Ma solo um 'po, e non multo bene! (But only a little, and not very well! - Though my knowledge of that phrase, combined with a convincing and [I'm not ashamed to admit] rehearsed-in-the-shower oratorial delivery has in the past led groups of Italian sailors to begin conversing in native Italian dialects, rather than straight Italian, with me around!) My Italian was ample to get me around on the aforementioned previous Roman holiday. Quite nicely, I might add.

Here's the proof:
Italian detour blog 1
Italian detour blog 2
Italian detour blog 3
Italian detour blog 4
Italian detour blog 5

But I digress. I'm good at digressing.

The point is that after several months of lightly perusing hotel listings and three days of labored searching through hotel listings, my obsessive compulsion to find just the right hotel in just the right location at just the right price has paid off!

I was about to book a lovely little hotel. It's located in a 16th century palace. It's facade is covered in ivy vines. Nothing luxurious, but nice, cute and clean. It was price was affordable (given the Euro to Dollar conversion) and location desirable. But something urged me on. You see, my taste of Rome this past April helped me to understand something about Rome: It is a city where you have to be in the know. Sure, many cities are like that, but with Rome, that attitude includes over a millennium of inherited family pride, patria and a sense of self-identity so engrained in a people that they feel no keen need to advertise an especially lovely little family run albergo (hotel) on a monster site such as priceline or hotels.com. The people come to them and find them. Always have, always will. After all, it's ROME!

Bearing that in mind, I knew what I was looking for. I had a picture in my mind's-eye of the perfect little mom and pop hotel located in an alley adjacent to the Pantheon (You might ask "Why the Pantheon?" Because that's where the picture-perfect Roman holiday takes place this spring in my head! Don't ask ridiculous questions!).

The hotels were either gorgeous and correctly located but way too expensive, or attractively priced but located by the Vatican or by Termini station (the main train station, about a thirty minute walk) instead of by the Pantheon. Dilemma! Dilemma! Dilemma!


I almost caved and booked something that I wasn't perfectly happy about. And then, after three days of exhaustive searching, I happened on this little item:

The Hotel Mimosa. Undyingly proud (in only the way a Roman could be -seriously, check out the website) of it's 1-star accomodations and service. Located directly (and I mean practically as an appendage) behind the Pantheon. Fantastico! And what's even better - the price! Several hundred dollars less expensive than the other modestly priced place I was looking at. I know, I know, you get what you pay for. I tripadvisor.com'd it for reviews and found it to be exactly what I was expecting it to be - something more akin to a hostel than a hotel. Bingo. I'm a single traveler. I'm from the US, home to the dollar, which is getting crappy exchange rates currently. Were I married and looking for a romantic getaway with a gorgeous, flower-laden balcony and snooty people to cater to my whims, I'd book this hotel. But this trip is down and dirty backpack traveling. With an en-suite bathroom.

I'm satisified.

Plus, as an added bonus, in case I should change my mind there are no penalties for cancellation (a rare thing in Rome) up to seven days prior to arrival. 5 nights @ 70 Euro/night. The other hotel: 120 Euro/night. Convert to dollars.  That's a three hundred dollar savings that will be spent on pasta, gelatto, chocolate pastries, museum entries, shameless flirting with hot Italian men (okay, that's free) and a flight from Rome to Istanbul, Santorini or Cyprus. (To be determined later.) Brava!

Italian Odds and Ends

I'm finally getting around to posting the photos of miscellaneous bits I missed previously. The photos below are all Amy's (the fearless friend who bought a ticket and then jumped on a plane four hours later to come out and play in Rome!)... She's got a great photographic style. Uh, PS, the photos are in reverse chronological order... so if you start at the bottom and work your way up - that's the order the trip actually happened in. LOL.

Eating Gelatto on the Spanish Steps...



















This is Adriano - the Italian guy who gave us a bottle of wine.

Me at the Colosseum (Love the Candid shots Amy took!)

Taking the long way around the Forum

Checking out the Italian version of a Chocolate Croissant... It was called a "pana di Cioccolatta" or something like that.

























My first real Italian Gelatto - on our first night in Ostia - after one life-changing plate of amazing pasta. Yum. Clearly, we ate our way across Rome.

Outside view from our seaside restaurant. It was the cutest little beach place!

This guy serenaded us with lovely elevator music during our dinner in Ostia... Gotta love the accent... and the WINKING! Hahahaha...

The amazingly cool woman who worked at the pastry shop in Ostia.

Hehehe... After finally arriving at the airport in Rome, both of us, completely exhausted made it onto the right bus and headed to our hostel. When we got on the city bus in Ostia, we were immediately recognized for being American tourists by a couple of local "thugs" (Ha! In Holland, this type of wanna-be thug is referred to in all seriousness as being "Ghetto-fabulous") These guys wanted to show off how "street" they were so they immediately started playing an Eminem song from a cell phone, as loud as it would go. Gotta love riding local busses! When we finally disembarked our bus, the one in the photo with Amy called out after us in English "Bye" (it sounded more like buyeee!) and we were off again...

A typical street in suburban Ostia - this is what happens when the modern world meets ancient city planning. Tiny cars parked on tiny streets.

This photo takes the cake. It is just absolutely a brilliant representation of the moxy that is the economy European traveler.

The Rest of My Glorious Day in Roma!

After arriving at the Piazza di Capidoglio, we spent a few minutes, snapped more photos and then continued on past the other side of the Forum and on to the Colosseum...

There were amazing buildings, statues, obelisks and monuments in any direction. There was so much to look at that you just couldn't see everything! Everywhere there was another archaeological area, a ruin, etc... There were also a few people out there "Busking" - or begging/street performing for money.

Some of them were very entertaining:

Finally we made it up to the Colosseum. I have to say - it's stunning. Simply amazing.

It's huge and the detail awe-inspiring. Everywhere outside of the Colosseum there are people trying to sell you guided tours, food vendors and HOT Italian men dressed up like gladiators that charge you to take a photo with them. (Amy was inspired by this to want to marry an Italian and have Gladiator night...) We opted to skip the guided tour (25 Euro extra) and wait in the line. We decided to go for the audio tour (it got us through the line WAY faster and only cost an extra 4 Euro). Well, first of all, the audio tour thingy was REALLLLLLLLY dang boring. It's kind of a buzz-kill too. The voiceover is really boring and monotonous and just conflicted with the feel of the actual Colosseum. So we shut them off and just wandered. I'm sure there was some fantastic information on those audio tours, but much of what we heard is practically common knowledge. So we spent a good chunk of time just walking around, admiring, taking photos, enjoying the sheer majesty and epic architecture/engineering that is the Colosseum. Fantastic.

Oh, FYI - before leaving the Colosseum, we used the toilet. That's right, we peed in the Colosseum. Pretty cool.

HUNGER! That's what happens when you haven't eaten in a while. I'm not going to lie - we ate a couple of hours prior - a nice fruit snack, so I wasn't ravenous, but considering we were in ITALY I decided to suck it up, take one for the team and go ahead and eat.

We took the gentleman who we ran into at the top of the Forum's advice and found his ristorante (Cafe Le Numacchia, which means "Sea Battle") tucked away a few blocks behind the Collosseum. We had delicious pasta again! This time I had Bucatini pasta... yummm... And then something ensued that was probably one of my favorite adventures of my entire life. Truly. An Italian man sat behind me and Amy became obsessed with the color of his eyes. Blue, but light, glassy grey-blue. Gorgeous. Eventually she took a couple of photos of him, trying to get the color. Of course he came up to us and asked to see the photos! Push came to shove and we ended up with a bottle of Italian Wine as a gift from him (see previous blog post "Adventures with a Bottle of Vino). :)

Full, fat and happy again, we decided it was definitely nap time. Headed to the nearest park and parked it overlooking the Colosseum on a grassy hill.

Now refreshed, we decided to get back to the serious business of being tourists. By this point, I was REALLLLLY ready to hop on a scooter, but alas we couldn't find a scooter rental place, or catch a couple of hot guys with them to take us for a spin. :( Maybe I should have called the guy from the previous night? ...Nah.

We had some priority sights to see: The Colosseum (Check), The Forum (Check), The Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and Pantheon. Vatican City we'd hit up if we weren't too pooped after those five. We'd mapped out what looked like a good route, but unfortunately the map was really not that great. So we started walking and just kept walking. We eventually ended up at the Spanish Steps (which we'd expected to see after the Trevi Fountain).

There's not much actual ancient history to the Spanish Steps - they were built to connect the Piazza di Spagna to the church above. In the 1800's or 1900's, some author came along and said the steps were "THE" place to go to socialize and people-watch. They are featured in the film "Roman Holiday." Amy and I grabbed some Gelato and sat down on the steps to read about them in our guide book.

While we were doing this, we heard a group of people below us, cheering! We stood up to see a couple in a horse-drawn carriage surrounded by a crowd. The guy had just proposed to the girl. After receiving his answer, he raised his arm with his hand curled in a fist and shook it, victorious! The crowd erupted into cheers and then everyone promptly went their way.

Another highlight was this adorable little Italian, curly-haired boy (age three-ish who kept running around us (and accidentally[?] grabbed Amy's boob in passing. Italian men. LOL.)

Next up we looked for the Trevi Fountain... this is where we actually got lost. Plus we were exhausted and not really thinking straight. We went WAY too far and ended up at the Piazza del Popolo (Place of the People), which was also gorgeous, just not the desired target. Turned around and headed back down Via del Corso and found The Pantheon!

HOLY.... The Pantheon. Another building that shows just how incredible Roman builders were. The scale, size... Che Belleza! Astounding. It was originally built by the Romans as a temple to worship all of their gods (hence the name Pantheon), but it was taken over by Christians later and turned into another Christian church. To this very day, it's free-standing domed roof and oculus remain an unparalleled feat of architecture.

A really cool, public fountain outside of the Pantheon

Same fountain - if you plug the bottom, the water squirts up, making a drinking fountain! Ingenious!

Three coins in the Fountain! Another great old film. It features the Trevi Fountain. Legend says that if you throw a coin into the Fountain, you will return again to Rome. Well I definitely couldn't miss that! If I had my way, I'd never again leave Rome.

After the Pantheon, we came full circle back to the Piazza di Campidoglio. The sun was just starting to peak at Sunset. We hadn't yet decided what do to - we were exhausted. We wanted to see Rome at night, all lit up, but didn't know if we would make it that long, especially given that it would take an hour to get back to our Hostel and I had a flight to catch in the morning. Blast! So, not sure what to do and in a sleep-deprived stupor, we sat on the steps, laid back and took a nap with a bunch of other people in the Piazza. When in Rome!

One particularly cute little kid was having trouble sleeping:

You'd better believe I'm going back. As soon as I can! I loved London. I loved Paris. I've enjoyed the beauty of many cities, from San Francisco to Saint Petersburg. But Rome puts them all to shame. There's so much more to see and do. It's simply my niche. I could live there quite easily. Maybe I will.