Pizza, pasta, and ... Bandeja Paisa

Sticking with tradition, Hyrum investigated the location of Colombian restaurants in Rome.  We found 3, googled their location, and saw that one was conveniently located a few blocks from the Vatican.

Friday we spent all morning at the Colosseum, and all afternoon at the Vatican, and by 5:30 pm our feet were done for the day.  But I realized we left the address for the Colombian restaurant's in our hotel room.  Whoops!

So we set out to find an internet cafe and look up the address online.  After about 45 minutes of wandering (and asking many people to point us in the right direction) we found the address.  (thanks google!)  We spent another 30-40 minutes getting to the address-- fortunately it was a combination of walking and buses.  And when we finally arrived, there was a closed door and no sign of a Colombian restaurant.  We were so hungry and tired that we were not laughing at the situation, and instead hurried to the closest Italian restaurant we could find as consolation.

The next day we set off in search of the second closest Colombian restaurant.  We found the closest metro stop, and set out on foot towards the address.  When we arrived, we found this:

Strike 2 didn't deter us.  On our last night in Rome we decided to attempt the last restaurant on our list.  With address in hand, we took a tram 25 minutes away and the restaurant was within 2 blocks of the stop.  The long search was over.  We found our Colombian food.  Hyrum LOVES bandeja paisa!

Documenting Rome pt 1

We loved Rome!  More than we were expecting.

In traveling to several big cities around Europe, I was expecting another typical big city. You know, tall buildings, metro and bus systems, several really-old-really-famous churches, a place to pay a few dollars/euro and get a great view of the city, a castle that charges way too much money.  And a Colosseum 

But Rome is cool!  It felt like every time we got off the bus or metro we'd look across the street and see 2000 yr old ruins just sitting there.  You don't have to go into museums to see what Rome has to offer; it's literally everywhere in the make-up of the city.  And all of the "typical" big city stuff was twice as old or twice as big as expected, making it not-so-typical.  I'm afraid future cities might disappoint!

The best example of this is when we were going to see the Colosseum.  We took the bus to the stop "Piazza de Venezia" because we were told it was only a few streets away.  We exited into a huge open plaza surrounded by enormous, old buildings.  I started reading in my tour book about the Victor Emmanuel Monument.  "Look behind you for the large white monument.  I was looking for an obelisk or statue in front of one of the buildings.  Then Hyrum pointed out, "The monument is the building."

Holy crap.  Romans aren't joking around when they build monuments!  I mistook this for an old government building or something.  WRONG.  It was built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Italy's unification in 1870.  To give you an idea of size, the tour book says the king's moustache in the statue is over 5 ft wide.  I think we visited once a day at least while we were there.  And every time, my jaw dropped in awe.  Here are a few more views:

At night

Almost in the rain

From the top (that's St Peters Basilica right by Hyrum's head)

 Mussolini created boulevard Via dei Fori Imperiali (road shown below) to open up the view of the Coloseum from the monument.  He was trying to impress Hitler.  (I bet it worked!  I was impressed). Apparently the Romans weren't so happy, though.

As we walked down the Via de fori Imperiali towards the Colosseum we kept stopping to take pictures of random ruins along the right side of the road.  What are all these ruins??  Turns out, that's the Roman Forum!  (Without tourists everywhere.)  We quit taking so many pictures because we knew we'd be back. 

not-so-random ruins after all

The Colosseum did not fail to impress.  It's as sturdy and huge and amazing as it seems in the books.  Pretty crazy that a building like that can hold up 2000 years.  And here a a bunch of pictures of its amazing-ness.

Hyrum with his gladiator face 

You can tell how huge it is by all the teeny tiny people.

More to come!

You know you're in a small town when...

1) You walk to the grocery store (for fun) and carry home your few purchases in your purse.
2) You see a tractor at the gas station on the way home. (definitely a first for me!)
3) You listen to the church bells ringing to know what time it is.  Three rings = 4:45.  

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera to take a picture of the tractor at the gas station (maybe next time!!) but this is the tractor.  And the church is off in the distance. 

For those of you that are thinking, "Aww, that sounds kinda nice."  Yes, it does have its advantages.  But the flip side is this:  I have a growing list of items that I need to purchase... but not quite urgently enough to drive the 30 minutes to the nearest store that sells legitimate stuff.  Small town America was really on to something with Wal-mart.  

Pictures for party of 2

Most of the time we do okay taking pictures of ourselves as we travel, but when we visit really cool places, it's nice to have a picture taken from more than an arm's length away.  I've learned there's a talent behind asking the right people to take your picture.  Because sometimes you get this:


"Could you take a picture of us with the Arch of Constantine?"
"Sure... but let me cut out most of the arch that you wanted in the picture."

"Could you take a picture of us with the Trevi Fountain?
"Sure... but let me cut out most of the beautiful fountain just to make sure I can squeeze your pants into the frame."

Or ironically at the Pantheon, we asked someone to take a picture for us, and they cut the top off, so we decided to take a picture ourselves.  Not too bad, right? 

Then a random guy passing by said, "no, no, no, you need a picture of the whole Pantheon.  Let me take one for you."  He spent about 30 seconds contorting himself backwards (why don't people just move their feet??)  claiming he was going to fit the whole thing into the picture.  So I'm not sure why we ended up with the top of the Pantheon cut off...

As I scan crowds for someone to ask to take our picture, some things I look for are:

--are they young?  This usually means they'll speak some English, or at least understand what we're asking. 

--how nice is their camera?  I always hope nicer cameras correlate to better pictures. 

--Are they already taking pictures of the same place?  If yes, they hopefully have seen what angles are good and what angles aren't so good.  

--Are they a couple?  I can offer to take a picture for them in return.  And if there's two of them, usually the one with better photo skills takes the picture.  Better odds. 

Occasionally, it works, because we got some nice shots in Rome.  

Victor Emmanuel Monument- taken by a young Asian tourist

Colosseum- taken by a young couple with a really nice camera

St. Peter's Basilica... can't remember who took it

St. Peter's Basilica- taken by a young tourist we saw taking pictures for someone else.  He took about 4 shots from several angles.  Above and beyond!