July 21 to 25 - Day 8 to 12 - Rome!!... and A European Weight Loss Plan

The trip to Rome was mostly a disappointment for me. Don't get me wrong, Rome is an awesome place with outstanding architecture and history. The problem was instead of being outside observing the outstanding architecture and history, I was stuck inside the hotel room, and more specifically the hotel bathroom, for a good part of the five days. The European equivalent of Montezuma's Revenge (look it up, and I don't mean the video game or bicycle race...) Yes, I was sick, and although it was a very nice bathroom, that's not where I wanted to spend most of my time.
I started feeling a little off on Sunday, the day before we left for Rome. On Monday, we got ready and went to the airport, where we took a bus from the terminal to the airplane. The flight took a couple hours, then we took a bus from the airplane to the terminal, walked a LONG way to the Leonardo Express (train) part of the terminal, took the train from the terminal to the Metro (city) train, and the Metro to a stop a couple blocks from the hotel. By the time we walked the couple of blocks to the hotel it was early afternoon, and I could have been done for the day, but we hadn't even started yet!
We dropped our stuff off at the hotel, and then started walking around Rome. We stopped at several churches first. The first was the Basilica Dei Ambrogio E Carlo. This was one of the prettiest churches I have seen - lots of gold and very ornate. The columns look like marble, and some of them may be, but the ones I got close to were painted to look like marble.

 

Next was the Basilica S Giacomo and then the Gesú E Maria Al Corso. Then one of two twin churches next to the Piazza del Popolo. One was closed, but we went into the S Maria Dei Miracoli.

 

 

                                      

Inside they have a glass casket with the embalmed body of S Candida Martire. I think this is a very strange custom...

Here's the Piazza...

There we encountered our first foreign (not from Italy) peddlers. A guy walked up and handed us some roses. I thought, great, he's going to charge us for these. But, no, he just kept talking to us and hanging around. We had a picture taken with them.

The roses were wet, and we didn't want to carry them around the rest of the time, so we thanked him and tried to give them back. THEN he started asking for money. And not just a few cents, either, because my son-in-law tried to hand him 20¢ and the guy wouldn't take it. We finally got him to take the roses back, and finally got away from him. After that we just said no when anyone approached us, and they approached us a LOT!
After the plaza we walked up a hill through a garden to the Pincio (the name of the hill) and from there we could see everything!! 

We walked down the Spanish Steps and went to an ice cream place, then walked around by the river and saw the Mausoleo Augusto (Augustus' Mausoleum) and the Ara Pacis, which is inside a glass building to preserve it.

Then we walked to the Piazza Navone and ate Italian pizza at one of the restaurants there. [Side note: Italian pizza is not like American pizza. It has a crisp, thin crust (sort of like a crisp pita) and the correct way to eat it is with a knife and fork. Unfortunately the crust does not cut well, and the knife is usually a table knife, so it is mostly an exercise in futility. I always ended up picking it up and eating it like I would at home. Maximum turista mode.]
There were three fountains in the Piazza. Here is one of them. Notice the live bird standing on the guy's head.

By this time I was feeling pretty rough. I was hot and tired, and my intestinal distress was becoming a distraction. [Side note: the public restroom opportunities in Europe are NOT as numerous (or pleasant) as in the US. More on this later.] There was so much to see, but I was starting to not care. It's a shame to be in a place like that and be so miserable that you want to be somewhere else. Major missed opportunity - my theme for the week.
After supper we passed by the Pantheon...

Then the Trevi Fountain (which was closed and we couldn't really see it). Our last stop for the night was at a pharmacy to get me something for my issues, and then we went back to the hotel. Total walking for the day: 7.2 miles!!

Tuesday we started out by getting on the Metro and riding to the Vatican. There were a LOT of people there, but not nearly as many as there could be. It started raining while we were there, and out came the peddlers with umbrellas and ponchos to sell. They made some good sales that day, but not from us. I had my trusty umbrella, which didn't look so dorkish after all, so I got to carry the stuff we didn't want to get wet. It didn't rain that hard, and didn't last very long. We got in a long line to go through security (like at the airport) and then went to St Peter's Basilica.
                                    
                                    
                                    

Here I got another opportunity to walk up a LOT of stairs (since I bailed on the ones in Germany). 320 steps this time, inside of the Copola. I (barely) made it up without passing out, but it wasn't a sure thing.
                                                   
After lunch we had reservations for the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel, but by that point I was done. I bailed out and headed back to the hotel... by myself. Now normally I have an excellent sense of direction, but being sick and all... I got on the Metro going the wrong way! I figured it out fairly quickly, and all I had to do was get off at a station and get on the train going the other direction. I got off at the correct station by the hotel, but then took the wrong exit from the station and ended up walking in unfamiliar territory going away from the hotel. Again, I figured it out and corrected it, but it's a very good thing that I had a map, because I could have ended up wandering deliriously around Rome for quite awhile without it.

Here's what the others did without me: Amy's blog
                                      

Tuesday evening they came back to see if I wanted to go to supper with them. I was very hungry, so I thought I would. (Oops!) I passed out in the Metro station, much to the concern of my family and several security/police. I could have ended up being subjected to the Roman medical institution, which I'm sure is very advanced (?) but glad it didn't end up that way. We got a snack for me in the station, then walked to a restaurant that my son-in-law had been to before. I was hungry, but nothing sounded good, and I couldn't eat much. It's a bad day when I can't even eat a piece of watermelon!!

So here are some European Weight Loss Plan options: 1) Walk around Europe (at least 4-5 miles and 30-40 flights of stairs per day) and eat good European food and lose 5 pounds in a week; or 2) Get sick and lose 2 pounds in one day. I would suggest the first plan, because it is way more fun, and way more healthy. Unfortunately, we don't always get to choose. And while I'm digressing, let's talk about European toilets... First of all, there is way more water pressure so they flush better. That's the one good thing. A lot of restaurants have them, but they are for the patrons - you can't just walk in off the street and use them. They are usually tucked away in the basement or backroom. Sometimes you have to pay to use them, and that doesn't necessarily mean they are better - a toilet in one of the Metro stations had a door that looked like an elevator, and after you put the money in, the door opened and there was this room that was totally wet and kinda gross, with no way to flush the toilet (it was continuously flushing in a trickle mode). Turns out that when you left the room, it was self-cleaning and just swilled the whole room down. Ick! I could go on, but then I'd have to rename this blog to "Observations on European Toilets" or something, and I don't think I want to go there (ha!). Anyway, some were very nice, and some were very not, and I saw a lot of them...

I made it back to the hotel after supper, and that was it for me until Thursday night. I did venture out to the pharmacy across the street from the hotel a couple of times, but only out of necessity.

Here's what I missed on Wednesday and Thursday.

Thursday evening I was feeling a little better and they wanted me to at least see the Colosseum, which was right next to a Metro stop, so I went with them.

We saw it and then went to supper at a place near the hotel. I was able to eat a little bit of noodles.

Friday morning I was able to eat a good breakfast - my first decent meal since Monday night, and then we headed for the airport. Then it was Metro to Leonardo Express to airport/train terminal to airport terminal to shuttle bus to plane to shuttle bus to airport to van to home.

We flew over the Swiss Alps. Awesome!!

We have over 1000 pictures of our time in Rome. Some stuff I saw, some I wasn't able to. Someday maybe I'll have another chance to go back and see it again.