ROME

ROME, ITALY
September 22, 2012

Up and at 'em but not too early today; heading out for a little bit of sight seeing. We are staying in a roomy apartment in the center of old downtown just minutes away from the Colosseum, the Vatican and the Piazza Navona. Had a delicious dinner in the Piazza last night.

We made a trip to the Post Office this morning before we went too far away. That was exciting! You have to push a button on the door jam. The door opens and is big enough for four people to crowd in. That's as far as you go until the door completely closes; then the interior door opens and you walk in past a scanner. Then you take a number for packages, or a different number for paying utility bills. It's slow and crowed, so don't forget to respond when your number is called, else you start all over! Then there's the language barrier. But we did it!

Our first stop was within walking distance; Vatican City. There were a lot of people there so we didn't want to stand in lines for tours. We just looked around, snapped a few pictures and left. We had been here 6 years ago and the Pope snubbed us, so we didn't want to even let him know we were here!

The next ordeal was figuring out the Bus system. But we did it and off we go! We got off near the Colosseum and the girls wanted to go shopping to buy pedal pushers or something and to see if they could get a toe nail job. They ended up getting lost and had a British girl hold their hands and deliver them back to the square. But I will let them tell that story!

Ron and I went to the Colosseum to look around. We decided the growling noise we heard was our stomachs whining about lunch! Well, it was going on 1:00 so we stopped at a little Italian roach coach. I grabbed a bread sandwich with a little cheese and tomato on it. Ron had something similar. We ordered a little bottle of Coke to drink but they wanted over $5.00 for one. We decided to skip the Coke!

We finished our lunch and headed for the Colosseum Didn't find anyone there who remembered us from the last time we were there, so we paid the 12 Euros and went inside. Not much had changed from when we saw it last. Nothing had been cleaned up or remodeled. They still had stairways and areas blocked off as before. Everything still looked 1500 years old!

After we saw everything we headed back down to our meeting place to pick up the girls. They showed up right on time!

Back to the apartment for dinner and packing for tomorrow's departure to our Cruise Boat!