12 Here we go again: Off to Rome and Israel

On Wednesday, 10-17-2012, NW and Bryan came for a visit while we finished last minute bill paying and loading their car for trip to RIC airport. Easy check-in and we boarded the small jet for 35 minute flight to Washington Dulles airport. Rome departure gate was near-by, so we moved down the concourse and waited for boarding time for our flight to Rome. Overnight flight on Boeing 767 was uneventful. We were able to sleep just a bit, as well as you can while sitting up in the too-small seats of today’s aircraft. We arrived on time at Rome at 8:15 am on Thursday morning. We stepped out on steps to a cool, but bright and beautiful morning of sunshine. Tarmac bus transported us to the terminal for passport check and baggage claim. All bags arrived together, so we started to walk to the adjacent Rome Airport Hilton. Luggage carts were available for 2 Euro, but I only had US money in my wallet. The ATM in the baggage claim area was out of service. I went to currency exchange service with my $10 bill. I knew their exchange rates were excessive, so did not want to use their service, but agreed to do so for a rolling cart. The agent offered to exchange my $10 US for 1.47 Euro. I said, “No thank you,” and we proceeded to walk our baggage to the hotel. Fortunately it was a covered walkway, with people movers along the corridors to the hotel. Also fortunately, all of our suitcases had wheels except one. The ATM in the hotel lobby solved our currency problems, and we were off to a good start. Since the room was not ready for check-in that early, we left our bags with the bellman, and took the hotel shuttle bus to downtown Rome, to kill time till we could get in our room later in the day. The shuttle bus dropped us at the side of the huge, white marble Venezia Monument, named for its location, the Plaza Venezia. that contains the Italian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WWI. It also features a statue of first king of unified Italy, Victor Emanuele II. We remembered, from our previous visit, that the Open-top Tour Bus had a stop on another side of the huge monument. After walking to that location, we realized that the bus stop had moved and was now located immediately adjacent to the bus stop used by our hotel shuttle bus. So we first had lunch in a café nearby, then returned to the same bus stop and bought our tickets for the “Sightseeing Roma” tour bus. It provides an informative one hour overview of all the monuments and areas of the city, and the hop-on/hop-off feature avoids the need for multiple taxi rides to move about the city. So we took the ride-around, then stopped at the Coliseum and Arch of Constantine. On our previous trip, another tourist had taken our picture, but the camera was not level, so we and the Arch have been leaning to one side ever since. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is supposed to look like that, but not the Coliseum and Constantine’s Arch. So we wanted to revisit for a better photo of the two of us standing beside this monument. The amazing preservation of the arch and the coliseum next it have given us two of the most recognized landmarks in the world. We now have several different pictures from various angles, taken by other tourists (Australian, American, Oriental, and another with an un-recognized language). It appears that almost all of these pictures are level with the horizon. We also walked up into the area of the ancient Roman Forum, near the Coliseum. As one of the most popular tourist areas of Rome, it seems to be always crowded, and this day was no different. Weather-wise, it was a picture perfect day with bright sunshine, blue skies and white puffy clouds. We continued the tour bus ride and returned to the Plaza Venezia. We located another small café and had our dinner of lasagna and gelato dessert, before returning to the hotel shuttle bus stop. The ride back to the hotel was quiet and comfortable, and when I awoke, we were at the front door of the hotel. We both were ready for check-in and an early bed-time. It was so nice to get to sleep in a real bed!