Rome

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=95 BGCOLOR="#999999" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="09e005f0ermwup.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>rome page 1</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|    </B><A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="italy and turkey"><U><B>back</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>Rome</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="rome page 2"><U>rome page 2</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id36.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="rome page 3"><U>rome page 3</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="umbria"><U>umbria</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="florence"><U>florence</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="florence Page 2"><U>florence Page 2</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="venice"><U>venice</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=385 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> Simply put, we loved Rome. Maybe after anticipating the trip for so long we were worried that the actual event wouldn't measure up. No problem. The genuine article more than satisfied our appetite for history, art, beauty, foreign places, nice weather and even great food.</div> <div> We landed at Fuimicino Airport, accompanied by a glorious Roman sunrise, an auspicious start. Found an ATM (Bankomat) and pocketed our first handful of Italian play money. With the exchange rate about 1,750 to 1, we soon were thinking in terms of thousands of Italian lira. After pretty easy train and cab rides into town, we soon were standing in front of the door to the apartment we had reserved in Trastevere, key in hand. Unfortunately, the key didn't want to slide all the way into the lock, and it certainly wasn't at all inclined to open the door. So there we stood, 24 hours enroute, a bit bleary eyed, in a very strange place facing a very strange lock with a very strange key that didn't work. So near and yet so far.</div> <div> We pulled a small flashlight out of a suitcase (good packing, huh?) and figured out that there was a key inserted in the lock from the inside, which confused us. It certainly did not appear that there was anyone in the apartment, and of course it was supposed to be empty, awaiting our arrival. Anyway, after struggling with this problem for 20 minutes or so, a neighbor opened her door to see what in the world was going on. She quickly became an ally and, armed with a butter knife, after another 20 minute struggle we managed to dislodge the offending key, insert our own and gain entry.</div> <div> To really appreciate the strangeness of all this it helps to understand that we had never seen a lock remotely like the one we were messing with. The key was like a fancy skeleton key, but stouter and very long, with notches on both sides. This key slides way, way into the lock and rotates three full turns, which, in addition to throwing a bolt into the door frame as usual, operates several more locking rods at the top and the base of the door. It was a pretty impressive security setup and had us nonplussed when we couldn't even get the key in the lock!</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="949" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 266 WIDTH="552"><div> The apartment was very nice, with a stone floor and other old appointments, but modernized nicely where it counted. Here is the view out our front (and only) window:</div> <bR> <div> The buildings up top are on Janiculum Hill. We walked up there on our last day for the exercise and the view.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="0cdc0100.gif" border=0 width="448" height="16" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Here is a map of Rome. Our little apartment was a few blocks from Santa Maria in Trastevere, a grand church, which is shown toward the bottom of the map. </div> <div> If you want to follow our travels around town, you can either memorize the map right now (good luck with the small print) or click on the map and print it.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="386"><div> <IMG SRC="0c9b6030.jpg" border=0 width="182" height="259" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 523 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="http://web.acsalaska.net/~aklindseys/public_html/romemap.jpg" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://web.acsalaska.net/~aklindseys/pub"><U><IMG SRC="0b012f30.jpg" border=0 width="530" height="499" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="386"><div> Most of the heavily tourist traffic is on the other side of the Tiber River. We greatly enjoyed our Trastevere neighborhood. It was bustling, ancient and fascinating but not a typical Rome tourist hangout. That's not to say that there weren't tourists on "our" side of the river. There were plenty. But nothing like the hotel districts on the other side.</div> <div> Counting the day of our arrival, we had 5 full days in Rome. We packed a lot into these 5 days and I won't (big relieved sigh) describe them all in detail. The short version is as follows:</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Day 1 - Explore Trastevere and the area across the river, up as far as Piazza Navona on the map. Cope with jet lag. </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Day 2 - Ancient Rome (Roman Forum area on map) and the Pantheon. Take a nap. </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Day 3 - Santa Maria Majore, far right side of map (a great church) and see the Catacombes of St. Callixtus where some 500,000 souls are buried, off the map well to the south. </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Day 4 - St. Peters and the Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel, finishing with Castel San Angelo. </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Day 5 - Rome fountain hopping and general sight seeing, including our stroll up Janiculum Hill. </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="rome page 2"><U>Next Page</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>