Roman Tourists

"What day is it today?" I asked my wife as we strolled the riverfront checking out the dust catchers on display in the stalls.


"It's still Monday " she replied " but almost Tuesday by now"
"Bugger me, the longest day" and it had been. Consider we arrived in Rome at nine in the morning and were on the train to the city by 9.30 after a mad run down the platform.


We walked what seemed like miles through the dusty station past the crowds of hawkers and touts and lost souls waiting for God knows what to our hotel on Via dei Mille a couple of blocks away and immediately dumped our bags and set off to explore the city.


We took a tour bus to start, Rome's answer to the Conch Train so my wife could get the layout of the city, and we stopped to admire the history of the place.


"I never did get why Americans were so hung up on the old buildings" I remarked to my wife who was raised in California and she looked at me like I was stupid, which perhaps I am sometimes.
When my wife was last in Rome on her first ever visit in 2007 we did a blitz tour of the city with my buddy Giovanni on motorcycles and my wife felt she didn't quite get to see the Eternal City on his rather superficial view of being a tourist. This time I promised her different. I picked up the scooter still on Monday and off we went for the long awaited night tour of the city.
I have to admit the €5 ($8) GPS is an absolute blessing for a rider who last hung out in Rome 30 years ago.
"Turn right in 200 meters" the voice says imperiously. Then when we miss the turn she says sweetly "Recalibrating" which means "The dork driver fucked up- again" and off we go the three wheels of the MP3 eating up the cobbles and potholes and tram lines like they weren't there.
The tour bus showed us the major sights, the Colosseum,


The Altar of the Nation


St Peters which my Jewish wife saw in 2007 and feels no need to revisit,


But at night we took off for the alleys and back streets looking for fried fish by way of a few more sights:


Campo De Fiori,and all it's confusion. I don't think scooters are actually allowed here, but hey we're stupid tourists and I suddenly forgot how to speak Italian. I like being a visitor.


Castel Sant'Angelo:


St Peter's by night which she thought looked quite different:


And dinner


But that's another story for when the steam powered Internet gives me access....

PS Thank you Gary for the home pictures while we are away and thank you Chuck Licis for helping me get Blog Press on my iPad to make remote posting possible.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad