April 25, 2017. Walking (and walking and walking) the streets of Rome

LOCATION:  Rome, Italy WEATHER:  Beautiful.  Highs in 70s   Armed with a map and a list of things to see from my book "Thousand Places to Go Before You Die", we hit the streets of Rome.  We were accompanied by about a million other tourists doing the same thing! First up were the ruins of The Forum.  Ruins are everywhere here.  We've heard that the city starts a construction project, runs into ruins, and just leaves them there for archeocological  study.  Various rulers over the years, starting with Augustus in 2 BC built their forums. 

Then, another ruler came along and built a different Forum.  These were used as courts.

Our map isn't that good, and we did a lot of walking in circles.  We finally found a famous market, also listed in my book.  

Next to the market are several restaurants.  We thankfully rested and restored oursevles with a pasta dish and an "artichoke a la Roma". Better than mine ever turn out.

Fortified, we soldiered on.  Next up was the Parthenon.  I hadn't realized it is a basilica. Too big to really capture in a photo.

Next was Trevi Fountain.  It was ridiculously crowded.  We could hardly get close enough to snap a photo

George almost had a meltdown at that point.  It was so crowded and noisy.  We wanted just to get to a quieter area.  Our map showed that we should take one of the busy main streets, fulll of upscale shops.  Today is Liberation Day, a holiday, so a lot of Italians were flooding the streets shopping.  We kept getting more and more lost, and couldn't even find where we were on the map.  George was really really grumpy, and just wanted to call a taxi to go back.  I, keeper of the budget, of course did not allow that. We had heard that taxis charge exorbitant fees on holidays. Instead, I found a tourist office and the kind lady pointed us in the right direction.    

Somewhat mollified, George continued to keep on walking, as long as we could stop for a beer along the way.  So, we did

 

Back home, we recuperated after about 8 hours of walking.  Our hotel is not really a hotel.  It is in a condo/apartment building.  It seems to be a condo converted to hotel rooms.  The first level has a very nice courtyard.

We have to take a creaking elevator up 4 flights.  It is the old-fashioned kind with ropes dangling from above

    Then, we enter the unit...

The price is good, location great, and the reception lady perfect.  

 

DINNER:  There are lots of options right around our lodging.  We found a quiet place.  We shared an order of gnocchi in gorgonzola sauce.  In the USA, I've tasted, and not liked gnocchi, but this was superb, melt-in-your-mouth quality.  We also had some grilled prawns.  All very nice.