Italy - Part 8 - Roma

So we were on our way north towards the Spanish Steps, but we hadn't eaten dinner so naturally we stopped at a pizza place.

It turned out the pizza was sold by weight and it was the best pizza I have had in a long time. It was quite simple, mine just had cheese, sausage and green olives on it but it was amazing. We ate in the place but realized after that we should have ate at the fountain nearby. There were fountains and really old buildings every couple blocks in this part of town. So many photos to take...so much darkness to wreck them. So after eating the pizza we also stopped at a gelato place but ate it on the go.

So we reached the Spanish Steps and this is the view looking up from them.
At the Spanish Steps there were many people hanging out enjoying the night and singing songs. Next we stopped at the Piazza del Popolo which was a huge open space with a fountain and obelisk in the center. Next up was the Piazza Navona which was made up of many carved fountains. I have more photos of Rome on Facebook.

The Pantheon was our next stop. This building was huge and you could walk amongst its giant pillars. I was pretty amazed by it. You couldn't easily take a photo of the whole thing, since you'd have to go back a block or two and in most directions there were buildings in the way.

Gordo by a fountain near the Pantheon.

After talking for at least an hour while looking over the ruins of the forum, Gordo and I arrived at the Colloseum. Wow, the Romans really must have believed bigger is better.

The lighting was pretty sweet. I would like to thank Greg for the awesome walking tour route. Gordo and I didn't get back to the hostel until about 2:30am, which was a short distance from the Colloseum.

So the next day Gordo and I were to meet Alex at this roundabout near the train station.

We took turns watching the bikes while one of us walked over to the train station and wandered around looking for him or trying to figure out when the next train was getting in from the direction of Florence.

This is a building near the roundabout. At about noon, I left Gordo there to seek out Internet. At the Internet place I looked up the location of Hotel Lodi and also emailed Alex to tell him that's where we'd be if we didn't meet him soon. Back at the meeting spot I watched the bikes while Gordo went to the train station. Luckily he came back with Alex who got in on the 1pm train. Without too much trouble we followed a map I'd drawn of how to get to Hotel Lodi. The guy there was really nice, getting us some ice cold water and letting us move our bikes into the courtyard behind a fence.

Here was my bed for that night. So then we had to decide what to do with the rest of the day. Alex really wanted to visit this seafood restaurant where you could get a great 8 course meal. Gordo was good with that too so we decided to walk to the newer part of the city called San Lorenzo and spend the day there rather than the super crowded touristy places.

We set out on foot. There was a lot of grafitti.

Little did we know how much walking we would do that day. We started by walking somewhat in the wrong direction because we wanted to find a place to cross the railway tracks. Unfortunately once we managed that we had to cross another set of them later and basically they were everywhere. We got a little turned around. During the day we stopped at a grocery store and bought some lunch. Alex and I split some fancy cheese as part of the lunch. We also stopped at a little department store where I bought 8 notebooks, each a different colour with a different smilie face on the front and Italian writing describing the colour in the cover. One for each of my family members.

Along the way there were many water fountains (aquaducts) and many of them were continuously running. They had a useful spout design where normally the water comes out the bottom for filling out a water bottle, but if you block this it shoots out the top for drinking.

More grafitti and walking.

More walking but now while it's getting dark we have navigated successfully to San Lorenzo. Unfortunately the fish place didn't seem to be open. There were signs for it but that was about it. Alex said they would setup in the street but there were cars parked where they usually setup. Luckily we did managed to find the gelato shop Alex had wanted to go to the whole day. It was called Nice Ice and it was delicious, but then all the gelato in Italy was. We sat in a park where there was a memorial to all the people who died in the bombings of this neighborhood in the 2nd world war. This is why the area has so many newer buildings, because the old ones were ruined. At around 9:30pm we realized the fish place was not going to be opened so we wandered over to a square where many young people were hanging out. Alex had also been there before.

We ate dinner in this pub. It turned out they had a buffet which had a good variety. After eating and drinking (Alex and I had wine) we walked back to our hostel in a very direct way. Then we spent some time on the Internet planning for the next day. Alex and Gordo were heading north out of Rome towards Switzerland and then Germany while I was leaving the continent to head back to Canada.

Here's my bike the next morning, ready for it's last trip in Italy.
I biked to the Roma Tiburtina station where I caught a train back to the airport.

Here's my last meal in Italy, bought in the food court of the airport. Watermelon! All in all, my trip to Italy was pretty freakin sweet.

It has taken me a bloody long time to write all these blog posts as I've been really busy with school and work and there is just so much to say. This is done just in time for a new trip. Tomorrow I am off to Atlantic City followed by New Orleans. Expect a blog post or two when I return.