Sitting on the balcony of our eighth floor apartment, one could watch the cars, motorbikes and whatnot else flow by for hours. Rather than the big street having designated lanes like there would be in the ever so organized Germany, there is simply a line through the middle of the road so that cars don't hit each other head-on. Other than that, the street is a free-for-all. Hence, it is quite a fun activity to watch the cars fight for dominance and form three, four or five lanes depending on how aggressive everyone is feeling. In fact, when one adds in the lanes the motorbikes make when they squeeze between the cars, I would say there could be even seven. All of this in what would be the equivalent to the size of a two lane per direction boulevard in the US.
I would say that the word chaotic isn't quite strong enough to describe the traffic in Rome. Our drive in Yesterday was a nail-biting, hold-on-to-your-seat, hope-you-don't-die experience. And I loved it. I'm pretty sure that if I would have been driving, I would have run over at least 20 motorbikes and how many other countless pedestrians that think they own the street. Nonetheless, I don't think words can describe the tension in our mega-mini-van as we fought through the streets yesterday.
After driving in a few circles around the block, we eventually found a parking space where we could squeeze our mega-mini-van in, and unpacked. Luckily, but also unluckily, our holiday apartment is on the top floor of the building. That means that 1) we get the best terrace but 2) that we have to take two trips with the teeny tiny elevator or take the stairs. Nonetheless, we unpacked the car and headed out to find a grocery store to load up on supplies. I got some real, Italian prosciutto cotto (cooked ham) that was probably the best ham that I will ever eat and also some cool elderberry-lemon Fanta that they apparently only have in Italy. After the grocery store, we headed back to the apartment to cook some dinner and go to bed.
This morning was what I would call in the Fischer Family, one of the more stressful ones, but nevertheless we got going and were ready to start the day by about 930. First we had to find the metro. From what I've seen so far, I would call the Rome metro another one of Italy's desperate attempts at infrastructure due to the lack of connections, overcorwding and failure to offer an alternative to driving due to the latter. The lack of connections doesn't effect us so much, as we only need to get to the the main things, but still, a city this crowded requires reliable public transportation. Anyhow, we arrived at the Piazza Venezia at about 10 and started our day. There, we found the Basilica di San Marco which is found behind the big white monument that looks a lot like a bigger version of the Lincoln memorial. After getting our photos and a quick history lesson, we the headed over to Colonna Traiano (Trajan's Column) which is all of his battles from some war wrapped around a big tall column. It was really cool to see it because when we were in a museum somewhere in Munich the other month, we saw a mini version and I said to Joern, "We're gonna see the real thing when we go to Rome." and now we have and it's full circle and Joern, surprise, still didn't care. Anyhow, next we headed over to the Foro di Traiano and Mercati di Traiano (Trajan's Forum and Market). The forum is just ruins, but the market was really cool to see because we learned about it in history class.
I could go on and on about all the endless ruins of basilicas, shrines, courtyards, gardens, churches and arches we saw in the Palatino and not to mention we saw the Circo Massimo (Circus Maximus), but when it comes down to it, they're all just ruins and there isn't much to see, but rather to learn. Eventually, we came out of the ruins to the Colosseo (Colosseum) and I guess one could say that it is colossal. We were smart and had advanced tickets, so we got to skip the insane line and go straight in. It was funny, because it felt like a Six Flags ride, but actually wasn't. Anyhow, I've seen plenty of movies about the Colosseum so you could say that I pretty much know everything there is to know about it. And I have to say, it was super awesome to be in the same place where Russel Crowe fought off the other gladiators and whupped butt. In my opinion, they should rebuild the place so that it actually has use other than for sweaty tourists to take pictures of. But then again, I also think we should air-condition the Sahara so it's not hot anymore, so what do I know.
After the Colosseum, Inga and Lars wanted to get ice cream and Joern and Lars wanted to head back to the apartment to "study". It was already 1600, so we started our search for a decent ice cream parlor, which isnt too hard in Italy. I got Dulce de Leche, Caffé, and Vaniglia. And of couse, they were amazing. After ice cream, we headed back to the apartment on the wonderful public transportation, went grocery shopping again, had some dinner drama, and are now winding down for the day.
Today is 8 June 2017
Nat
No comments:
Post a Comment