ORGANISED CHAOS OF ROME

WEATHER: BEAUTIFUL AND SUNNY AND ID SAY 22C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY:  Seeing hundreds of Italian Service men in uniform

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Hitting traffic for an hour on the freeway from Venice

BUYS OF THE DAY:  The free gelato we got as part of dinner

WORD OF THE DAY: Man we are in Italy

We got to have a sleep in this morning till 7am for an 8.45am departure – heaven.  The pace of the tour is pretty hectic.  When you look at an itinerary you do take in all the one night stays and know you have to drive, but a lot of people have been saying that they didn’t realize just how many hours would be spent in the coach.  The normal drive times are we travel for 3 hours, stop for 45 minutes and then generally have a further 2-3 hours travel, so generally trying to get us in to our destination by midafternoon.  Today there was an exception as there was an accident on the freeway leaving Venice and we didn’t get too far for about an hour till we passed the 4 car pile-up. 

So our first stop was nearly 4 hours in, and there were a lot of fast running people getting off the bus for the toilet break.  The beauty of the break, there were seriously about 150 Italian service men in military cams also using the same Auto grill (roadhouse).  They were all young; they all had guns sitting on their bus seats and as far as I could tell they were all GOOD LOOKING!  Sorry Mark how long were we staying here?  I have to admit they had a Burger King here and I got a whopper for lunch and it was just delicious.  Sometimes you need to eat something a little familiar, even if we call it Hungry Jacks back home.  Same burger, different name.

After another pit stop (and seeing some of uniformed friends again) we arrived into Rome around 5pm.  From our drop point, we walked to dinner by you know just the Coliseum, the Roam Forum site, and what I call the wedding cake but it’s proper name is the National Monument.  Just another ordinary walk in an ordinary city – NOT!!!!!  Rome is as Mark says a living and breathing museum.  Everywhere you look, there is a piece of history looking right back at you.  We are not talking like 200, or 500, or 1000 years old, some things are up to 2000 years old!!!  This place is just amazing.

After dinner we had the pleasure of Mark taking us on a small walking / orientation tour.  We took in the sights of the Trevi Fountain and for the record ChelC and I did a coin throw this time into the fountain.  Apparently if you throw one coin (right hand over left shoulder) this coin is for your return back to Rome.  Throw a second coin, and this will give you luck that you will marry an Italian so just for good measure we threw a third, just, well surely it has to mean extra extra luck right!?  As usual the Trevi fountain was busy, but nowhere as busy when we were there 2 weeks ago, so it made a nice change.  Apparently all the coins that go into the fountain are retrieved and given to homeless people and certain charities, so that is nice to know gypsies etc. don’t get all the cash!

Our walk also encompassed the Pantheon, which is 2000 years old, and boy does this building still look awesome. A little wear and tear, but to just sit on the steps and marvel this white pillared building was a reality check for me that I am truly living my dream and to soak up the history of this place and what it has taken to get here was very profound for me.  You would think a bigger, or better known monument would make that effect, but these things happen when you least expect it, which makes it that more raw.  The sun was setting at this stage, so the rays of light just made it all that much more surreal. 

Next stop was for our gelato.  Now you don’t mind a little bit of choice, but 150 flavors it just crazy right!  How could we even begin to decide, let alone in like the 1 minute we had to make our decision.   It’s one of those things you need to just pick the first ones you like the sound of and stick to it, as you know; generally you always go back to the original 2 choices!!!  As there were 50 of us, you can imagine the chaos that could have been. But as organized Mark is, we filed in like human beings 5 at a time, and what do you know, we didn’t have to push and shove and it took only round 25 minutes to get us all in, 2 scoops each and out again!  Happy us, happy ice-cream man, happy Mark – aka Grant.  For the record I got Pistachio and Coconut – D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S

Our last stop on the Marky Mark tour was the Piazza Navona.  By this time it is 9pm, so the place is lit up and there are artist stall everywhere with the main water fountain looking all magical and mystical in bathed light.  It was nice to see Rome at night time, just to give you another side to this very busy city!  We walked to the bus from here, where Pete was waiting for us to take us back to the hotel, which was approx. a 25 minute drive away.  Finally after a long day we arrived at the hotel at 10pm.  Long but totally worth it day of travel.  You could spend a whole week in Rome and not see everything the city has to offer – but it one that should be on every traveller’s itinerary – at least once.

This is our first 2 night stop we have had and we are now half way through the tour.  London and Amsterdam seem a life time ago and I am glad I am keeping a record of what I am doing.  I don’t think I ever thought I would keep a daily record, but I am glad I have and hope that it keeps up over the whole journey.