Walking

Yesterday my mom and Brenda went shopping until my dad and I got frustrated and we separated. Nothing against them, but that's just not what we wanted to do. Dad and I walked down to the end of the street and saw the middle of the heart of ancient Rome, that huge propaganda monument which is gorgeous, part of the colosseum and a Trajan's colomn. Two stray cats were around. I tried at first to take a picture of all of the Roman architecture I saw, but it appears the ancient ruins are really the heart of the city and stick out in many places. Rome feels frozen in time to its glory days in the 1800s when artists flocked there in numbers and the might of the Romans, though it could be the fact that most of the locals have left the city and tourists abound.

I also finally got a messenger bag I am happy with. It's so nice that I don't want to mess it up and am considering getting a "casual" one. Why is my extant one not sufficent? Because it doesn't zip and I am constantly in fear of things falling out. It's also too big.

We ate at a restraunt which was very popular. I think there were a lot of native italians there, though the food seemed soaked in oil for tourists. Accents abound, and I've heard French, German, and British. I think I saw Icelandic graffiti.

Today we got up too early, in my opinion, and I cleared my camera off onto the computer. The hotel provides free food which we took advantage of. We waited for my aunt and uncle, then left for the huge metro station Thermini. We had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to get train and metro tickets. Things were very unclear, partially or mostly because we don't speak Italian, though most people speak some English. There is an excellent book store in the station, though most of the books are in Italian.

We took the subway to what was advertised to be the Trevi Fountain. However, we still needed directions and the map to get there. It's always a shock when walking up to these monuments. Usually they are blocked by buildings, and all of a sudden this huge, intricatley carved things comes into view. I can see why the Romans liked fountains with this weather, though. This is the first place with heat to match the valley's that I have ever travelled to, and to make it a little worse the weather is slightly humid. We then ate at a nearby cafe and went towards Hadrian's temple. My dad got lost and then my aunt and mom got lost and then my uncle got lost. Then we finally made it, seeing another Trajan colomn along the way. My aunt and mom also stayed in a souvenir store for a long time before meeings us there. I have no idea why they decided to put the ministry of agriculture in there.

We then accidentally got to the Pantheon, which is amazing, as you can probably imagine. The church was much more oppressive than St Peter's Basilica, which we visited yesterday. Oh! I forgot to tell everyone about that. It was so pretty I nearly cried, no joke. The architecture and paintings are amazing. Also, ironically, they had dedicated part of a cloister to celebrating Gallelio and relativity. It had soaring ceilings and beautiful paintings.

So after everyone was found, we went to the Piazzo de Navona, which is a huge building with a huge fountain in front of it. A nice French girl gave me part of a cracker she was feeding the pigeons with and one sat on my lap. We then walked to the Campo de Fiori, which was supposed to be a huge market, but had one or two stalls and a lot of neglected buildings. Dad and I checked out an interactive exhibit of Leonardo Da Vinci machines which turned out to be for children, while my mom, uncle, and aunt got gellato.

My aunt convinced us to get a taxi to the Spanish Steps ,which dad and I walked up. The church at the top contained the usual amazing paintings and marble, and apparently was first sponsored by a courtesan. At this point everyone was tired and we decided to go home. We got seperated for an hour during which everyone got very angry, and then rested at home.