Okay, so I mentioned that Rome was trashy. It probably wasn’t as bad as say, the Hollywood walk of fame is on a bad day, but it’s was was worse than walking in say, downtown San Francisco. I saw a few people cleaning up trash occasionally but it wasn’t enough.

Trash was bad but even worse was the graffiti all over the place. This was a reoccurring theme in Rome and Venice (so naturally we think all of Italy is full of graffiti).

The day we got there we went to go and get dinner. We didn’t really know where to go so we just started walking. We just happened to start walking toward the Coliseum though we didn’t know it at the time. Walking and walking and walking and we ended up stopping at a pizza place for dinner. I got a pizza (it wasn’t all that special . . . pretty much what you would get here at a local pizza place) and Sarah got some noodles. The noodles were good and the service was bad. We didn’t know it at the time but in general, if you want something you have to ask. It’s not like in America where they check on you ever few minutes.

After dinner it was night time and of course we had nothing to do but walk. We ended up seeing the Coliseum in the distance so we had to walk in that direction. We ended up walking past the “Roman Forum” along with a bunch of other famous buildings. I remember thinking how cool it was that we were in Rome and we just happened upon some ancient ruins!! Turns out that’s about the only place you see ancient ruins in Rome. Most everything else is rebuilt to look ancient. But we continued our walk and circled around the Coliseum and then back to the hotel. It was a long walk. We were probably walking for at least 3 or 4 hours.

The next day we set up a tour of the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, and some Palace where the Caesars lived. It was nice tour but pretty costly and the tour guide rambled on about every Caesar that ever existed and what building the had a hand in building. As if we’re going to remember all that!!! She shoulda had a pamphlet or something. But our 42 euros didn’t cover that I guess. Anyway, it was nice to be showed around and get a little background.

While in Rome we got to know the Metro. There was only two lines so it’s wasn’t all that diffuclt but it was nice to get around for only a Euro each.

We didn’t get to do as much in Rome as I would have liked but that’s mostly because we were tired. A lot. We slept when we first got there, went for a walk and dinner, and then slept just fine later that night (though that was after walking for a long time but still).

After the tour we did some more stuff but I can’t remember right now. I’ll ask Sarah and we’ll add it soon (if not for you then for me so I don’t forget everything).

Sheldon