Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The first real day of Vacation - Sightseeing Rome

We spent our first day of the trip walking around Rome. We had beautiful sunny day, but it got kind of hot toward mid afternoon. We saw all kinds of sights on the eastern side of the city, saving the sights that were farther off for our return trip.

Since we were up before most things were open, we caught up on our email and tried making calls back to the US on google voice. We knew that you can call from a computer to a phone for free in the US, but it costs money to call to Europe (still a lot cheaper than the phone company). We weren't sure if there was anything other than finding a working internet connection that would prevent calling to a US phone number for free – there isn't, it worked!

Linda at the Farmers Market
We took a walk before breakfast to the train station to print out our tickets for Wednesday. When we walked out of the B&B, we found a bunch of merchants setting up a farmers market in the street. It was a lot of fun. The train station was real active in spite of the general strike, the trains and buses all seemed to be running. We did get a chance to see a protest march, lots of red flags, but pretty calm.

The Train Station 

The train station



Protest March


Protesters and the Holy Steps

Colosseum
After taking in a few cathedrals and squares we headed back to the Hotel for a nap. In the late afternoon we went out again and enjoyed Rome in the evening light.
Linda at the Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

Spanish Steps

Tomorrow we head north on the train to Tuscany where we will meet out group for a 10 day bike ride. It should be great!

Since we did not put in any pictures last night, and we probably won't have many tomorrow, we will throw in a few extras from Rome.

Stephen and Linda

4 comments:

  1. Loved the farmer's market stands. Looks like there was some good stuff to buy & eat! What did you guys buy? Any?

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  2. Tom & Dianna - Yes they had Bananas & we bought some!

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  3. These pictures are great you guys! We wish we were on this trip with you! Next time maybe we can drive the van! How do we apply for THAT job?
    The farmers market picture looks like something out of a movie.

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