When in Rome...

For only having a day and half to see Rome, I think Mom and I did a pretty good job.

We spent yesterday wandering around the Spanish Steps part of town. We took a lovely walk along the Tiber River. Rome on a crisp fall Sunday afternoon is enchanting. No rush, no cares, the ultimate in “la dolce vita.”

We found the Spanish Steps pretty easily. TONS of people, yet apparently it's a lot worse during the summer. We then got our daily gelato fix (my selection: strawberry and coffee) at the most opulent McDonald's in the world. And it's not just me saying that; there was some show on the Food Network that claimed it as such and therefore made it a destination for us.

The Piazza di Spagna McDonald's was two stories tall with a marble staircase connecting the two. Downstairs was the gelato bar and “Coffee and Sweets” bar, with a dessert case rivaling that of any fancy bakery in Portland. Upstairs, past the marble statue, was the dining room with a ceiling full of arches. Not golden ones. Marble ones. The counter was the same as any other Mickey D's, although it featured a sandwich on ciabatta bread with Parmesan cheese, looking much more upscale than Jack in the Box's version. Off to the side was what looked like a huge salad bar that was temporarily out of commission and therefore decorated with fake fruits and linens. With all this, how was the gelato you ask? Fabulous. The coffee gelato was the best coffee flavored ice cream-like stuff I've had since my beloved Frujen Gladje disappeared back in the late 1980s. I miss it so.


Everything was going splendidly, so we decided it was time to find a “Hop On, Hop Off” bus so we could ride around the city and get a lay of the land in preparation for more in depth sightseeing today. And this is where the adventure truly began.

We had heard great things about the “Hop On” thing. We had also been told there were four companies doing them and they were all the same. We had been given a brochure for one and had stops marked on a map for another. Each stop was also supposed to have a clearly marked and easy to find sign for trouble free, happy tourist hopping. Are you getting the sense things didn't go exactly as promised?

Lost. That's what we got. Lost and eventually a touch nervous. But we retraced our steps several times and ended up seeing a most spectacular sunset over St. Peter's Basilica from the top of the Spanish Steps. We managed to “Hop On” today and confirmed that we really aren't blind or directionally challenged. We discovered several stops had no signs at all. And the bus we were on today actually did stop at the broken sign where yesterday, as we waved at the bus to flag it down, the driver simply smiled and waved as she kept driving. We managed to get back to our hotel safely last night before it got very dark. Mom was a trooper as she kept up with my decidedly not strolling pace. When we finally collapsed on our beds, shoes off and feet on fire, we realized we had been walking for about 7 hours. Our conservative guess for the distanced trekked: 6-8 miles. And we had a blast.

Today we did a group tour of the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. Then we “Hopped On” and wandered around the Coliseum and the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. We were considering getting a taxi to drive us back to the Coliseum tonight, so we could see it lit up, but we're beat. We threw some coins in Trevi Fountain, right hand over left shoulder, so that means we'll be coming back someday. We will do our night tour then.

We're repacked and ready to start our trek home tomorrow morning. It will take Mom two days and me three. We agreed tonight that it's been the trip of a lifetime. And then we said in unison, “But hopefully not the only one!”

More to come when I'm stateside.

Photo score: Toni =1423; Mom (who is now on her second 2GB photo card, having filled her first one with 1478 photos) = 1780