Rome

Caught a 7:30am flight from Nantes connecting through Nice to Rome.  Landed in Rome about 12:30pm.  Now that's convenient.  Since I have a Carte de Sejour (Frence resident's permit) I have all the rights of a European Union citizen.  Among the responsibility to pay taxes is the open borders aspect of that union.  So, thinking I'm something special I followed the signs that said "this way" if you had flown in from an EU country and had nothing to declare.  This put me outside security, ready to catch my train to the city in just minutes.  Unfortunately, it didn't put me next to  the bag I'd checked, so, after going back through security I found my bag and the train to central Rome (14€).

The central train station is huge, but I managed get a ticket (11€ for 48hrs) to find the 'A' train and got off at the Lepanto stop.  The weather is nice and warm (about 82 degrees F.) making my eleven block walk to the hotel very nice.  Checked into the Hotel de Mellini about 3:00pm, threw the bags in the room, saddled up Shank's Mare and off I went.

Central Rome where many of the tourist attractions are located is not all that large, probably two to two-and-a-half square miles.  This hotel is located practically in the middle of it making most places within walking distance.  Even I, bad leg and all, managed to see a lot in the afternoon and early evening left to me upon arriving.

The Tiber
About two blocks from the hotel.

 Access down to the river.

Some church (as is to be expected, it seems there's one about every other block).  Didn't get who the statue was

But...you've heard of the "Roman nose?"

Here I am, modeling in the window of Gucci.  This particular street has every famous designer in the world on it.

"I loved you on the Spanish steps the day you said goodbye."  (Okay Texas music fans, what is the song, and who is the writer?)

Every where you look there's an monument or statue.

I stopped in this nice open-air restaurant for a very relaxing cold beer and sandwich.  Both were excellent, and, by this time, I needed to give the feet a rest.  A lady, obviously, shopping sat down next to me and proceeded to "hang her purse" using this neat little device.  I'm sure all the ladies out there have seen them, but this is my first experience.  Good idea.









As you're walking around here there are all kinds of little porticos and entranceways going back into the buildings.  Many lead to very nice apartment/home areas.

As you can see, some have paintings and icons within them, this one rating a candle and blessing, I guess.

Saw this great little building with a CiCi's pizza on the bottom floor.

Which, obviously led to:

The Leaning Tower of Pizza

After leaving the Spanish Steps I meandered back over toward the Tiber to the Piazza de Tribunali.

The top

Tour boat on the river below

Moving along the river you spot these little places.  I don't know what was being recognized in this marker, but here it was, complete with flowing water

A little further down the Castel Sant' Angelo

Paris is the city of light.  Venice is the city of water.  Rome is the city of fountains.

These are at the Piazza Navona, a now-favorite place of mine.

The Piazza has lots of action within.

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Here, a hand puppet artist has enthralled these two children.

And, a little further on I run into this musician playing a very old Ovation.  Made me feel inadequte, my Ovation is only 30 years old, a veritable baby.






More fountains.

In this case, the fountain was sort of anti-climatic compared to the area getting up to it.

The Trevi Fountain

More tomorrow!