Rome Sightseeing Continued
St. Paul's 'without the walls'
The people on the optional excursion then boarded the bus again, and Tonino drove us to St. Paul's 'without the walls'. (This does not mean the church doesn't have any walls. As Trafalgar is a British company, this is the English way to say that it is "outside the walls".)
In the picture on the right, you can see our Roman tour guide for the day, Carlo.
The two pictures on the left are of the mosaics inside the church, and the picture on the right is the courtyard and the
convent.
Baths of Caracalla and the Roman Pyramid
From St. Paul's, we drove past the Baths of Caracalla, and then stopped long enough for people to get off the
bus and take some pictures.
Then we drove past the pyramid shaped tomb of Casius Cestius, a Roman tax collector who worked in Egypt
and decided that he would build himself a pyramid to be buried in.
Colosseum and Roman Forum
After that, we drove to the Colosseum/Forum area, where we met up with the rest of the group again, near the Arch of Constantine,
which you can see in Randy's picture, and continued the part of the tour which is included in the tour package.
The picture on the left was taken as we walked from the bus, past the Colosseum, to the Palatine Hill, which
overlooks the Forum.
These are pictures of the ancient Roman Forum as seen from the Palatine Hill. I had thought that we were
going to walk through the Forum, but all we did was stand here while Carlo told us all about the Forum.
The picture of the Forum on the left was taken from the Colosseum area, and shows one end of a building that was
originally two temples. One end, the end farthest from us in this picture, was converted into a Christian church and
is relatively intact. The other end has been mostly torn down and the material used for other buildings.
The picture on the right is a view of the Forum from the Palatine hill.
You can see a leaning tower in the middle of the frame.
This is only one of many leaning towers throughout Italy.
The famous one in Pisa is just one of many.
The photo on the left is the detail inside an arch from a ruin in the Forum.
Centuries later, the same detail was copied in many buildings.
The picture to the right is a detail from an arch in St. Peter's Basilica.
From the Forum, we walked to the Colosseum, which is nearby, and which we had passed as we walked to the
Palatine Hill. Unfortunately, the tour does not include going inside the Colosseum, but I knew this
before we got here. The picture on the right was taken through one of the arches looking into the Colosseum.
Randy and Lynda stayed for a few days in Rome after the tour with Hal and Patt. One of the things they did is go back to the Colosseum and
go inside. Here is one of the pictures he took there.
Free time
When we left the forum/colosseum area, we were taken back to the hotel, where we had some free time before the evening
optional excursion.
Some people went to their rooms to rest, others did other things.
Karen wanted to walk to the Hard Rock Cafe that we had passed last evening on the drive down the Via Veneto.
She wanted to get a Hard Rock t-shirt from Rome for her daughter Sandy.
We talked with Marco and determined that it was within a short walk from the hotel, so we set out.
Part of our route was the same route the bus took last evening to get to the restaurant.
We walked past the ancient Baths of Diocletian that Marco pointed out last night.
A portion of the baths in the picture on the left was converted into a church by Michelangelo.
The picture on the right is a portion of 2500 year old walls of Rome.
This is situated right next to the Termini train station. I walked through the station looking for an
Internet cafe that was supposed to be there, but never found it.
So we made it to the Hard Rock Cafe and bought the t-shirt, along with a few other things, including
a shirt for me. We got back to the hotel in plenty of time to get a short rest before we were off again.
Evening Tour: Fountains and Dinner
The bus left the hotel at 5:30PM for the evening optional excursion.
Dinner was at the Hostaria Unione Sarda.
There was wine, bread and a basket of salami, pepperoni, etc. waiting for us on the table,
including a salami from Marco's home region, the Marches (Marche).
Here we are in the restaurant.
One thing to notice whenever you see a picture of any of us at a table, is the number of glasses in front of us.
Most of the time, there was not a problem with finding some wine to drink.
First we had eggplant, zucchini, cooked cabbage, hot salami, cooked peppers, homemade mozzarella and ricotta cheese.
Then they gave us clean plates with bowtie pasta and sauce, followed by ravioli and ziti, also with sauce.
Then another clean plate with chicken, veal, lamb and pork.
For desert I had tiramisu (not as good as the first night) and Karen had cheese cake, which she says was very good with a taste of lemon,
and was like a cake that had cheese in it.
After the meal, there was coffee, and your choice of Grappa, Amoretto or Limoncello.
On Marco's recommendation, most of us tried the Limoncello.
It was OK, but we would have some better Limoncello tomorrow.
Once the dinner was over, there was a rose for each of the ladies in the group.
The entertainment was a guy singing Italian songs. In the picture on the right, he was singing
Arivederci Roma, as this was our last night in Rome. I do not know why everyone is waving towels around,
but it seems like the thing to do when you hear that song.
There was also a guy with him who went around pinching ladies on the behind.
I guess they wanted to keep the Italian legend alive.
Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps
From the restaurant, we went to the Trevi Fountain.
On the way, Marco explained that you can throw up to three coins.
One coin ensures that you will return someday; two coins means you will get married; and three coins means you will get divorced.
Here we are, throwing one coin each into the fountain. (I assume Karen only threw one coin.)
You have to throw the coins with your right hand, over your left shoulder.
(Marco took this picture for us.)
The picture of the Trevi Fountain on the left is a close up to get some of the detail of the statues.
On the right is a wider shot, so you can see the whole thing, and the crowd that gathers around it.
From the Trevi Fountain, we walked past the Spanish embassy to the Spanish Steps. From there, we took the bus back to the
hotel to end our second night. We went to bed around 11:00PM.
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