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!
