Pictures
Today was a lot more walking. We slept in until 9am, ate some breakfast, checked out and sort of sat in the lobby for a while. We’d seen most of the major sites in Rome, and weren’t to eager to head into the heat again, so we dilly-daddled around for a while.
We finally decided what sights we wanted to see and set off.
Our first stop was to check out the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II which is in the Ancient City. It is an enormous monument which takes up nearly the entire piazza. It was at least three sets of large stairs to get to the upper walking level, which wasn’t even close to the top of the monument. It overlooked quite a bit of the area. The first level is a monument to the unknown soldiers, and has some very interesting sculptures and fountains… but a lot of the monument was under renovation, so the fountains weren’t working. In the center of the whole thing is a gargantuan statue of Vittorio Emanuele II on horseback. I took a picture (I hope) of the sign stating its dimensions, and I think it was something like 20×10 meters large and all bronze. See, I told you it was huge!
From there we walked to Santa Maria in Cosmedin which was a really old church. The main attraction was the Mouth of Truth. It is a sculpture of a face in the wall and you stick your hand in. If you tell it a lie, it supposedly closes on your hand. We waited in line for it and when it was my turn I walked up and said, “I am an astronaut.” I am happy to say I still have my hand. So much for superstition! After that we walked around the church a little. I was surprised at how old it looked and felt. After that we sat in the shade across the street for a while.
Then we headed up Via del Corso for about a hundred years and got to the Piazza del Popolo. I believe it has one of the oldest obelisks in Rome. Mussolini is said to have enjoyed walks here. The Egyptians and Romans must have gotten along pretty well because there are obelisks all over the place! We sat in the shade there for a bit and then headed up to the gardens nearby. The walk was fantastic and the view was breathtaking! We could see nearly all of Rome! We saw the Emanuele monument from afar, St Peter’s Basilica was prominent and not to mention all the other domes. I don’t think I’ve seen so many domed buildings before in my life. Rome has fantastic architecture! I am a huge fan, especially if it’s aged and worn and epic!
On our way back we passed the Spanish Steps again. And I need to correct my last post; the correct Roman name for the Spanish Steps is Scalinata Trinita del Monti. I was reading another name on the map the last time. Whoops!
After that we headed to the local grocery, Sma, and ate some food. We got some snacks for the night train we have later. Right now we’re using the last of our Wifi in the hostel before headig to the train station. Our night train leaves at 7:10 and arrives at 4:30am in Innsbruck, Austria. From there we take another 5 hour train to Vienna. We had other plans when we originally booked the night train to Innsbruck, because we should have taken the night train straight to Vienna, but alas it was not meant to be!
Sidenote: We have met quite a few grocery chains while over here. Our personal favorite is the German Spar store. We saw them in Dublin on nearly every corner. In Switzerland we ran into a lot of Coop stores. Here in Rome Sma seems to be popular, although we have seen a Spar or two! I hope to see some more Spars in Austria and Germany!
I think today was a little cooler, if not just from the fact that we stayed in the shade a lot more. It beats getting fried by the sun! Although I do need to watch to make sure my nose doesn’t get any more red. Don’t need to end up with blisters… that would be painful!
We should have free Wifi at our next hostel, so I think I’ll be able to upload some pictures there. I’ll also look into uploading the videos I’ve taken. Maybe to Youtube or Vimeo…
Alright, wish us luck on this overnight journey over hundreds of miles. I hope we don’t get stuck with anyone who is annoying or who snores. Kyle out.