Täglich Wiederkehrendes Abenteuer

Can you believe we’re already at our last day in Rome? It’s really flown by. There were just a few things we wanted to see today, so after getting up a little later than normal and munching down some breakfast, we set out on adventure!

We decided to try to make it a light day, so we took the subway across town with the intention of just walking back through the things we wanted to see. It worked out pretty well. We got off the subway at the Spanish Steps from last night and walked into the expensive part of town. When we checked into the hostel, the owner made a joke that it was very dangerous for me to go there (because Joni would spend all my money). While that would never happen, I could see other people going broke there.

We walked down a street and peeked at some of the prices. The cheapest thing we saw was a tie… for 120 Euro. The most expensive thing we saw was a 4000 Euro purse. We didn’t even bother looking at jewelry or anything. Basically we just ignored our surroundings and walked down to a crazy fountain thing.

With a crazy man taking a water horse… or something.

MJ was impressed. At least I think that means “impressed”

There’s a church nearby, but we were happy with the fountain. We turned around to head to the second stop, but we didn’t get far before the gelato (ice cream) called to us. It was funny because we ordered small cones that were 2 Euro each. We figured we were getting ripped off, but the lady just kept piling the ice cream on the cone, then when she was done with that, she put another smaller cone on the top upside down! As Joni mentioned later “I should have told her to stop!” For the record, Joni had coconut and I had white chocolate.

The second stop of the day was the Pantheon. No, not the PARTHEON, the PANTHEON. They’re not even in the same country! The pantheon is the oldest continuously used building in Rome. It’s a pretty impressive place.

There’s a small fountain outside, but when compared to the huge building next to it, no one cares.

After looking around there, we headed over to the Piazza Navona. We arrived to find a big concert or event going on. There wasn’t so much music, but there was a lot of people talking. We had no idea what they were saying, so we ventured into a church.

This video sums that up nicely:

The plaza also has a fountain with some crazy stuff going on:

GET OFF MY HEAD!!

We kept walking around the plaza, found a hair clip on the ground (we kept it), then checked out a little toy store. The toy store was neat in that they had super fancy doll house accessories. Need a dessert cart for your doll house? 35 Euros and a stop at that toy shop will get you one. Need a cigar cart with brandy? Also available. That’s not the kind of stuff you’d find at any toy store in the States.

We headed out of the square and took little back roads up to the river. We walked along that a bit until we came to Castel Sant’Angelo name and the fancy bridge that leads up to it. We opted to skip the castle since neither of us was really interested and walked along the river looking through the tent-shops that merchants had set up. We bought a couple of knick-knacks as presents, continued browsing, then decided we should maybe head back to the hostel for lunch.

We took the long way back going through a park all around the castle, then getting slightly lost in the back streets. Of course there were challenges in getting through the park:

Well, not for all of us.

We also got one last look at the Vatican.

We did eventually make it back and immediately collapsed. After a brief rest we had some lunch and started the Internetting. We’re not sure where/if we’ll have wireless again, so we made one last big push on that front. Joni also worked on her job application.

We’re now heading out to supper at a little place the hostel owner recommended. We’ll let you know how it goes… went. Whatever.

OK, back from supper. It was an OK place, but you don’t get much for the money. Especially interesting is that they consider pasta kind of an appetizer. So if you get an appetizer pasta, then you get a relatively small portion. The food is tasty, just smaller than you expect. So, fail in that regard.

We’re Internetting and drinking a bottle of wine we got the other day. Tomorrow we leave early for Spain to see Addy. Hopefully we’ll have an update sometime soon. Blogging on the go is so hard!

Oh, a few more notes before I go! Drivers here are insane. You know how when you cross the street in the US and cars wait for the crosswalk to clear before making a left/right turn? Yeah, here they go when there’s an opening. You get cars zipping right in front of you at the weirdest times.

Then, as a special bonus, I give you the Rome hostel tour video!

The only downside is that I can’t get in the showers. The door is too small, so there’s some squeezing and scraping required to get in. Oy. Some people’s problems!