Christie and Luke

Our second stop in Italy was in Rome and wow what a day. I have never been to Rome but I know there is a lot of stuff here and I want to see it all. We only have 12 hours in port and we need to take a hour long train ride to/from from Civitavecchia (the port town) so our time is limited. We jump off the ship and make out way to the train station trying to catch the first train since they don’t run as often as a late traveler would prefer. It turns out that a couple hundred people  from our ship also had the same idea so there was a line. While we were in line Christie saw a ticket machine so she jumped out and worked her magic and we were set. The train we took is also a commuter train for workers so the closer we got to Rome the more crowded it got but we had seats so it wasn’t a big deal.  When we got to Rome we decided to be smart and buy our return tickets and figure out times so we wouldn’t have to worry about it later.

Next we jumped on the subway to head over to the Coliseum because I really wanted to see it. Christie read in her travel book that it was smarter to go to Palatine Hill where the emperors used to live as it was a shorter line and would also get into the Coliseum. She was right. We were about 20 people back in the line then we had our tickets. We then toured through Palatine Hill and saw a lot of wrecked buildings but it wasn’t all that fascinating. We exited and went over to the Coliseum and walked past about 1,000 people in line waiting to buy tickets and went right in. If you are going to see the Coliseum go to Palatine Hill about 200 yards past the Coliseum and get tickets there; it is way faster. We walked through the Coliseum fairly quickly as we had a lot of ground to cover. I loved the movie Gladiator and felt like yelling “MAXIMUS” but better judgement prevailed and we settled for some sweaty pictures. In case you haven’t caught up with the theme of the trip it is sweating.

Next we went over to tour through the Roman Forum and apparently is no longer free. Apparently the last two times Christie has been in Rome it was a free thing to walk through and wasn’t protected by fences so it was a cool free thing to do. The good news is that the ticket we bought for the Coliseum included entry into the Forum. The bad news was the there are only 3 entrances and we walked way past the first one and had no idea where the others were. We walked around the forum and wound up inside an old church that you could walk around. We walked over a sarcophagus then down some stairs into the nave of the church. It was kind of creepy so we got out of there pretty quickly. It seemed like we were touring through some sacred area that regular people shouldn’t be allowed but the church was wide open and there weren’t any ropes anywhere and my curiosity got the best of me. We left the church and finally found the entrance and walked around the forum. Not a ton to see here since it has been destroyed but there were some cool columns to look at.

The next stop was Campo de’ Fiori to hit up the market and buy some authentic Italian spices. Christie found this on past travels and we have been enjoying them since I have known her. We actually registered for spice containers with the sole purpose being to house the spices we were going to buy on our honeymoon. We set out to get spices and that is exactly what we did. The guys working the stand were awesome and they had us smell each spice before they bagged it so we knew it was good. Unfortunately when I was smelling the spaghetti spices I got a little too close and ended up snorting them. Thank God it was spaghetti and not the arrabiata spices or else I would have a third nostril.

The next stop on our trail was probably my favorite. We went over to see the Pantheon which was one of the few buildings that wasn’t sacked and destroyed so it was amazing to see what condition it was in and what the other buildings would have looked like today if they had survived.

We them moved on to the Trevi Fountain and I told Christie that I had already seen it. She was confused since this was my first time in Europe so I told her that I saw it at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. She punched me. There is a legend that says if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain that you will return to Rome again. My interpretation is that legend was started by a homeless person that would steal the money at night but I have no facts to support it. According to Wikipedia about 3,000 Euros are thrown in the fountain each day and the money is used for a supermarket for the needy so I guess it came full circle.

This was Christie’s third trip to Rome and each time she has visited the McDonald’s there. She initially says that she goes because it is the worlds largest but the truth is that they have large restrooms that are also free to use so she hits them up. I don’t know if she has ever bought anything there but she definitely knows how to work the system.

Just a short walk from the largest McDonald’s you can find the Spanish Steps which is a cool staircase which is apparently the longest and widest in Europe. We sat there for a minute, took some pictures and were getting ready to leave when a man tried to give Christie a rose. This wasn’t your Romeo trying to pick her up or a nice person just giving out roses he was trying to get you to take the rose then ask for money. We tried saying “no thank you” and moving but he was a persistent fella. He put the rose between her arm and her body and I had to physically remove his hand from her personal space and get between the two of them.

It was around 2:00 and we were getting hungry so we decided to hit up a local restaurant for some authentic Italian food and a bottle of wine. I can’t recall the name of the restaurant but holy cow, it was awesome. I got gnocchi in a tomato mozzarella sauce with basil and Christie got farfalle in a roasted garlic sauce with eggplant. When we ordered the bottle of wine the waitress looked at us like we were crazy because we ordered a red wine saying “you know that it is not cold, right?” Yes, we know it is not cold but red wine goes that much better with the food! She was probably looking out for our best interest since both of us had visible sweat lines but we aren’t in Italy very often so we were going to do it up.

On the way back to the train we were walking through the train station and we wanted to keep an eye out for a hard sided suitcase because we were planning on smuggling bringing wine home with us and we didn’t want it to explode in out bags. As we rounded a corner it was like there was an aura around a luggage store and there it was inside the display window. A bright green carry on suitcase. We walked in and pointed, paid and left within 5 minutes.

Next up was the train back to Civitavecchia so we found it and got on trying to grab a seat while they lasted. We found some and sat down quickly but noticed it was as hot inside the car (if not warmer) than it was outside. I thought it was because the train wasn’t running and the A/C would kick in once we started moving. I was wrong. There was no A/C on this train and the wind was afraid to come in the windows in fear of turning into a fourth state of matter that results in molecular oblivion. The car was so hot that I was sweating more than I did the majority of the day and I don’t think there was a square inch of my body that wasn’t wet. Even my shins were sweating and that is crazy to me. I didn’t know shins had sweat glands.

Once we departed the Heat Express life was much better. As we were walking back to the ship we passed a,  well, I guess gift shop was the best way to explain this store. We saw that they had some wine in the store so we popped in to check it out. After looking at the wines they had we picked out 3 bottles of wine and a bottle of grappa to bring home. When we were checking out the man asked if we were drinking it or travelling so we told him our intentions and he actually bubble wrapped the bottles so they wouldn’t break. That was awesome and he was extremely nice. Right before we left he was talking with another woman that worked there and she told us that he wanted to give us a magnet to take home since we made a fairly sizable purchase. We didn’t know what to do. Do we take a crappy magnet to make him happy? Do we say no thank you and insult him? We decided to take a crappy magnet so we looked around and actually found a really cool “Roma” magnet and it is now on our fridge.

Rome was my favorite city of out trip and I only saw a tiny portion of it. I’m glad we threw the coins over our shoulders while we were there so we will get to go back.

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