Thursday, June 26, 2008

Rome

Three weeks ago I spent 4 days or so at the farthest reach of the Roman Empire. The last couple of days have been spent at its center. There isn't much to say about the Coliseum that hasn't already been said.
Its Big
Its impressive.
What modern day structure will stand in 1500 years and still draw gasps I wonder?

Rome is one of those cities that the mere mention of its name conjures up images to the mind. It's History Baby! The antiquity strewn around the streets are so numerous that you walk by a 2000 year old bench without a backward glance. In England such a thing would be displayed behind glass. In Rome people sit on it to wait for a bus.
Most of these pictures were taken before 9 am. This had two advantages:
The hordes of tourists haven't yet created snaking suffocating queues, and the stifling heat was bearable.
By 9:30 it was 32 degrees.
I've been to Rome a few times before, but never when its as hot as this.
I'm melting.
Remember, I've just been to India and the Middle East......The water flows at the Trevi Fountain at 8:30 am on the dot. Its a very cool piece of surreal sculpture.Cops in Rome are a stylish bunch.I also popped in on poppa smurfs headquarters........
All the collection box money and candle sales translate into some pretty impressive architecture. I wonder how much of a cut they get from the Infant Jesus shrine in Bangalore?Vespas are everywhere.All of the impressive history and far flung empire made Rome the centre of the civilised world in its time.
My experience of the hotels, airports, plumbing and indifferent service at lunch makes me asked the question:
What the hell happened????
Answer that question and you will have one of the secrets of the universe.
That's it for today. I'm off to the airport and back to a temperate and green land.
T

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Terry,
Loved your photos of Rome. I felt the same about Italy in regard to the service, the bathrooms, the airports and the work ethic. I guess in a place where you can't get fired it is pretty easy to be *&%$ lazy.

Hmmm, loved the Zimbabwean (is that a word?) jokes.

Just got to Jackson Hole after a couple of days in the Wind River Range WY. Talk about greengreengreengreen and tons of water this year. Already breaking records for drowning deaths out here in the West.

Hope you are well,
Rhonda

Unknown said...

Well, I'm off on Sunday. Thanks for the pics. Setting me up nicely. Let's up the weather breaks otherwise looks like I'll be looking for air conditioned buildings.

Unknown said...

NIce pics! to those who will be inspired by them and want to follow Terry's footsteps please look into vacation rentals in rome to find a b&b or apartment or hotel room...
ciao

Terry said...

Now that is a novel way to advertise.......

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the pictures of Rome Terry. Beautiful. I backpacked through there 24 years ago. Used to take the train into Rome each morning, walk around sightseeing and museum drifting all day, then hop a commuter train out each night and get off at a random stop - then find an olive grove, or behind someone's shed or barn, and put up my tent. That was also the year there was a guy going around killing backpackers in tents on the outskirts of Rome. Sometimes it's better just not to know what's going on - and just keep gawking and gazing and shutting out pesky things like serial killers.

Anonymous said...

GW Bush finally gets something right.

The White House has apologised to Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi for a briefing describing him as a political "amateur" who is "hated by many".

The "insulting" biography was included in a press kit distributed to reporters travelling with President George W Bush to a meeting of world leaders in Japan. He was "one of the most controversial leaders" of a country "known for governmental corruption and vice".

TR-HW