When in Italy P stands for Pizza – naturally, but it also stands for Pisa and it’s leaning tower. And R stands for Rome, which is where we are presently situated. And the Q stands for just that – a few short queues here and there as we waited to to view some of the attractions.
Actually,before all that, I have to include a little bit about a very pleasant stay in a little town named SantaFiora. Set in the mountains at about 2500 ft it was a real treat;
another old town with a real charm of its own. We wandered happily through this place, catching it on Market Day as it happened.
The bonus was that at night it cooled off beautifully, from the heat of the day.
And so to Pisa,famous for its tower with dubious engineering and resulting tilt:
where it was so boingly hot, and we scuttled from shade to shade – along with 10,000 other gawking tourists. This must be the most crowded spot in Italy – if you discount the awful “beaches” along the French and Italian Riviera.
And then we drove on to Rome. We had intended to stay quite a way out of Rome for a night, before moving closer to the city, but problems with power, a failing fridge and a host of devices needing a transfusion of 230 volts made our leader decide to get straight to a fully serviced site.
So here we are plugged in to the precious volts, with devices re-charging left, right and centre and with our fridges purring efficiently once more. (the prolonged bout of 37-40+C has tried our gas-powered units beyond their capabilities.
And so today we checked out Rome’s Public Transport systems = and we found them to be excellent.
First a bus – right outside the front gate, which took us to the train/subway station. A few minutes wait and along comes the train – to whisk us (somewhat noisily, it’s true) right to the Coliseum. And all done with one E1 ticket! (can’t say I love the graphics on the carriages, though)
Well we walked our socks off today – and in what must be the hottest day of the year so far. This is hotter than Malaysia, and with a humidity down around the 20-30% I imagine.
We walked in and around the Coliseum and saw it from every vantage point.
Then we continued to explore the surrounding Ruins. Such crumbling magnificence! It must have been quite something to be a citizen in those days. Such an extravagance of imposing, marble-faced, column-encrusted buildings – it would have been quite over powering.
And again, the ingenuity and skill of the builders of 2000 years ago, makes one quite humble. No doubt we are a very smart bunch these days, but what those fellows did back in those days, with the equipment and knowledge of the day – is absolutely amazing. I take my hat off to them (“chapeau!” our French friends would say)