Wow. It’s been a big day. We have seen about half the city and all on foot. Milly’s FitBit recorded 21,000 steps, Michelle’s recorded something like 24,000 (shorter legs). Our feet can confirm that there were a lot. We have promised ourselves that tomorrow will start with a bus tour of the city, with no walking involved until we do the Vatican.
The day started with the Coliseum (or Colosseum). The place is amazing. Apart from the size and ingenuity of it all, I wonder at the abilities of the Romans. We think that we are very clever in this day and age with all our technology, however I think the Romans had an edge on us. The whole thing was built without the aid of any computer-aided structural analysis and not a union organiser in sight. Still it was built and what’s more I bet the MCG won’t last nearly as long as this thing. A couple of hours very well spent.
We then wandered around the Roman Forum archeological site and the Palantino. The sheer size of the site was impressive, as was the fact that every second staircase ended in thin air, providing a hint as to the original extent of the buildings. They were impressive enough in their dilapidated state.
By about midday we were tired and thirsty and retired to a cafe outside the Roman Forum. The water fountains dotted around are a great idea, as there aren’t any other form of refreshment within the site. Also no toilets. Fortunately it was hot and we drank nowhere near enough so the lack of toilets wasn’t a factor.
After lunch (composed entirely of gelato) we decided to wing it and just wandered up and down the myriad of interesting side streets. We managed to stumble across the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Italian Parliament, Piazza Navona and a whole lot of other things I’ve never heard of.
After we had tired of this we found ourselves at the River (Fiume Tevere) and decided to turn around and head back. I wonder which way that is? After another hour of aimless wandering – bordering on hopelessly lost – we were reduced to buying a map as some of the instructions provided by the locals seemed dubious. Using the GPS on the phone would have been a good option if it had worked. Must look into that.
It appeared we had walked northwest in a straight line for about 5 kms. How is it that, if lost in a desert you wander in circles (a well known fact learnt from Hollywood movies) but if you try and wander in a circle you head off in a straight line?
All in all a fairly good day. Something got itself smeared on the lens of the camera about 1:30pm, so I’ll have to go back to some of those places and retake the photos (maybe). I didn’t notice the smear as, without reading glasses, the whole preview screen looks blurry, so one blur more or less wasn’t that obvious.
Enough for now, sleep beckons.
Steve J
