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| Trevi Fountain (under reconstruction) |
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| Coliseum |
We woke up early this morning, had breakfast and took the
hotel shuttle to the Brussels airport.
The airport was quite crowded at 8 AM, but things went rather smooth as
we checked our bags, went through security and waited at the gate for our
departure to Rome.
Once on board
the plane, we departed pretty much on time and arrived in Rome by about 12:30
PM.
We had arranged for a driver
to pick us up and take us to our B&B, and he was waiting for us after we
picked up our luggage.
The ride from
the airport to the B&B took about 40 minutes.
On the way, we passed some of the famous sites in Rome,
including the Coliseum.
Gail and I
had not been to Rome since 1980, so it was interesting to see some of the sites
we had not seen in 35 years.
After
checking in at our B&B we were off to
Trevi Fountain, which was about a
20-minute walk.
Once we arrived at
Trevi Fountain, it was rather disappointing;
the entire fountain was totally enclosed in fencing, there
was no water in the fountain and the entire area is being refurbished.
The way it was enclosed looked like a
Polar Bear exhibit at any zoo.
Even though the “exhibit” was closed off, there were literally hundreds
of people all gathered around looking at the dry fountain.
Some people were even throwing coins over the enclosure. After leaving here rather briefly, we
walked to the area of the Roman Forum and Coliseum.
Along the way we passed by the monument to
Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy, in the 1850s. Everywhere we walked there were hundreds
of tour groups and thousands of people.
In all my years, I have never seen this many people strolling around any
city, carrying maps and/or following tour guides holding up various colored
umbrellas, even though it was not raining.
Everywhere you looked there were small stands selling all kinds of tourist trinkets, photos and postcards. Rome has become an incredible tourist town. I have been to Rome three times since 1967, and seeing what has become here is unbelievable, and in my opinion, not for the better. We stopped by the Forum & Coliseum to take some
photos and just walked and walked.
We eventually made it back to the area of our B&B and had some
dinner close by.
The proprietor of
the B&B recommended this particular restaurant.
The food was OK, but nothing special, a bit of a
disappointment.
Once we completed
dinner we went back to the B&B for some sleep.
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| Trevi Fountain |
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| Part of the Roman Forum |
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| Monument to Victor Emmanuel II |
What a shame. I have not been to Italy but have heard b/c of the strong dollar lots of [US] tourists have gone to Europe. [of course this is fall now and not the summer, so imagine how much worse it might have been if it were 2-3 mo earler]. Hope you get some better food, too.
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