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Rome – Day 2

I got up early and headed out towards the Colosseum. Since it was early, I made a quick stop at Trevi Fountain to get some pictures when it’s not so crowded first. After I made my way to the Colosseum I met up with my tour group and we went inside at ground level, where the gladiators would have fought. From that vantage point you could also look down into the sublevels where all the preparation and background work happened, which was pretty cool. After the Colosseum we made our way through Palatine Hill and to the Forum, at which point we were given time to do as we pleased. I wandered around for a bit, looking at the ruins, before making my way to Piazza Venezia and walking up to their Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where they have two armed guards always standing by with a lit fire in memory of those lost. The views from that building, the Altar of the Fatherland, were pretty nice too.

I continued along my way to Largo di Torre Argentina, an excavation site that they’re still working on which also happens to be next to a large TNR cat rescue, sanctuary, and adoption center. They welcomed guests, even tourists to come in and pet cats so of course I did because as I’ve said before that’s just who I am as a person. After taking photos of all the free roaming cats I went inside and donated $30, so the lady told me to pick out one of the hand-painted rocks one of their volunteers made to sell. I took a happy looking ginger painted cat.

The Pantheon was just up the road so I walked over there, but didn’t go in, I was getting hungry. After grabbing something to eat, I headed to Triton Fountain where I met my tour group for the next activity, a tour of three underground ancient buried locations. The first was one of the first Christian catacombs in existence that upwards of 150,000 people had once been buried in. The second was a 12th century church, which had been built on top of an 8th century church, which had been built on a 2nd century rich person’s house, which had been built on a 1st century regular house. You could go down all the levels to see the changes which was pretty cool. The last stop was a church run by Franciscans where they had taken the bones of some 2,500 Capuchins and decorated several rooms with them. Not quite the same as the catacombs in Paris, but odd nonetheless. No photos were allowed in there though. After that tour was over, I jumped in a random pizza place for an okay pizza then headed back to the hotel. That was a lot of walking!

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Rome – Day 1

I got up and had breakfast, checked out of the hotel, and took a ferry (now that they’re running again!) to the train station. Now, originally I was going to go to Athens after Venice, but dang Athens is expensive and difficult to get to and I’d have to go to Rome to fly to Thailand so I figured I’d save two days of travel and travel expenses and just go visit Rome since I had to be there anyway. Woe is me! The train ride was uneventful, it goes about 155 miles per hour (250 km/h) and a lot of it is in underground tunnels.

After arriving in Rome I took a taxi as close as he could get to the hotel, then walked it from there. It’s not that he couldn’t drive me to my hotel, there were roads, but they were absolutely PACKED with people, and the time spent trying to push through wasn’t worth it. Getting my suitcase over the old cobbled roads was interesting, but I made it to the hotel and checked in. I was starving, and wasn’t up for playing charades for communication, so I went to the Hard Rock Café right around the way from the hotel for a club sandwich and English conversation. By the time I was done eating it was sunset, so I hiked up the Spanish Steps to watch the sun go down. It was a bit crowded, so I meandered over to the Terraza de Pincio, which overlooks the entire city and Piazza del Popolo which is Rome’s oldest obelisk. The sky exploded into pink and purple, and I wandered around the big park looking at all the cool statues including entire rows of prominent Italian people in that area while stopping by the lookout areas to watch the sky change. After it was dark, I headed downstairs and found a pharmacy for some cold meds (I’ve had a sore through these past couple days, fingers crossed it doesn’t turn into anything worse!) and some groceries, then turned in for the night. I have a big walking day tomorrow!

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Venice – Day 2

I was up and out the door after breakfast early and made my way to the ferry dock. As I waited, an older gentlemen with a daschund walked by and it was a pretty cool looking dog so I asked if I could take a picture of him. The man was amused and let me take a photo and pet the puppy. Afterwards he asked in broken English if I was waiting for the ferry, and I said yeah. He told me none of the ferrys were running today because of a strike (seriously, what is up with Europeans and not wanting to put signs anywhere???) so I’d have to walk to my tour. He was very nice, and directed me to the Accadamia Bridge which was the closest one and then another guy at the bridge directed me where to go again and I figured it out from there. Shout out the Venetians for being patient with tourists during the disruption! Fortunately I had left plenty early and got to the meeting point in time. I did a walking tour of the city with an English guide, and met some very nice people in the group from Florida. After the walking tour, we got in a gondola together and did the 30 minute loop through the canals.

During the walking tour the guide mentioned a hospital that we passed by which had open areas inside home to about 50 cats, so I doubled back there and hunted down the cat area because that’s just who I am as a person. I only saw about 15 or so, but the place was huge with multiple areas and plenty of hiding room. A lot of the cats seemed afraid of people and didn’t want to be touched, but there were two black cats and a black and white one that just laid in the sun and lavished the attention of passersby so I hung out with them for a while. I continued on my way to the Bridge of Sighs and then went back to my hotel for a bit of a walking break before my next tour.

After a couple hours cooling down in the hotel, I headed back out for my next tour of the Doge and San Marco Basilica after closing. The Doge was pretty cool, the rooms are beautiful and you get to walk inside the Bridge of Sighs. I didn’t go to the Basilica during the day, but at night it was gorgeous. They put you in the main chapel and turn off ALL of the lights for a few seconds, then slowly turn them all back on as the old electrical system kicks in and slowly illuminates it gradually like a rising sun. The tour even took us down to the underground and around to the golden wall. It’s a little pricey, but I thought it was worth it for the special access.

The tour let out into the Piazza. There were three restaurants that had hired three bands to play music to lure in guests. These are restaurants where one (1) glass of wine is $30 and a bottle is $200, so they could afford to hire the bands. Anyway, one band would play, then another, then the other so the tourists watching would keep shuffling back and forth to listen and I did too for a little bit. The first band played a nice romantic slow tune and all the couples were dancing together, the second band played a really upbeat tune and people were clapping along, and just as I was about to leave the third band started playing and what started out as E.T. turned into an almost 10 minute movie theme music montage that was just amazing. I missed the first minute or so on video since I had to run over there, but managed to record the rest and it was epic!

I’m pretty sure I have the route to the hotel almost memorized now, although I did make a wrong turn down an alley at one point and when I turned around a huge yellow lab was standing there waiting for pats. So of course I gave him a pat, and he moved so my hand would be on his rump, so I scratched his back, so he collapsed and started kicking his leg as I hit his sweet spot and was just being a super cute pupper for probably an 80 pound lab. When I stopped and walked back to go the right way he followed me for more pats (of course I obliged) and I eventually found his owner in the main square for that area who thanked me for bringing him back…even though I had no idea the dog was lost, it was just following me and I happened to run into the owner. So FYI, Venice is set up like a maze, and Google Maps is completely worthless, so you actually have to pay attention and learn which pathways and walkways and canals and alleys go where and expect to run into random friendly dogs (that last part is the opposite of a problem). I made it back to the hotel without incident after that, and crashed. Onward to Rome!