The Return

Well I am back from Rome. It was a great trip, but I was ready to return. After 15 hours of flight time, I was exhausted. I am able to sleep on planes, however, I don't get any rest. Does this happen to everyone? While on the plane I read "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". Pretty good classic. I would suggest it to anyone who asks. That boy sure did live a life.

The return trip was not all that exciting. I reported to Rome's airport a little over three hours in advance, advice received from locals. I found myself to be the only person concerned about my flight. You see, I beat the airline people to the check in counter to check my bags. That wasn't so bad, then I made it through the security, with only minor touching by the big italian guard. Then I waited for my flight. The flight was an 11 hour grueling trek over the northern part of the Atlantic ocean in one of the older planes, so I didn't have my own TV screen to watch, and it was some boring movie they had selected. There was also a young child in the row behind mine. I thought this is going to stink. However, the baby was very well behaved and always smiling. I am wondering if mom gave the child anything for the flight. He seemed very happy. I mean very happy.

As you can tell from this post, it is early Friday morning in the house. I have been up for two hours, unpacking and what not. My dear friend will be dropping off my mail this morning and the ritual of going through and making sure everything is order will begin. I hate that part of the return, Having to shift through three weeks of mail always sucks.

Thats all for now.

S P Q R

That is ROME. In Roman. Ha Ha. Anyway, the trip is coming to an end and I have made a couple of tourist stops to share. Remember to check back in a week for some advice on where to eat and what to do. Yesterday, I took a long overdo break and visited a few sites here in Rome. I went to the Pantheon and the Castle St Angelo. While out and about it began to rain, and conveniently, there were about a hundred umbrella sellers out selling umbrellas. This is the fate of unskilled workers in the EU. But not just umbrella sellers, they had fake pocket books, fake watches and fake designer belts and sunglasses. It is really interesting to see the capitalist spirit on the side of the road. It does kinda get in the way of fine photography though.
Yesterday I watched Gladiator on the TV to see what Rome may have looked like in her hay day. It was interesting. I have been to the Coliseum and it doesn't look big enough for the events depicted in the movie. Oh well. This is most likely my last post until I return. Thanks for the Italians that showed me around and put up with me for the last couple of weeks. Check back before next weekend for further news.

More Roman features

Tonight while walking around I saw a couple of strange things. First an unusually Tall women with a weird silhouette. I assumed it was a women by the long hair and apparent thin neck. As I approached she turned into a man with his young daughter on his shoulders. Just a little optical illusion. Then a little further down the street, I saw a man in the telephone booth, using a phone. You may think this is normal, but he was using a cell phone. I guess the reception is better in the little box with aluminum frame and glass window.

Not much touring since my last post, although while riding in a roman taxi, we were almost T-boned. Would not have known whose fault it was, but it was near two hours before I could pass gas again.

A shout out to IT, Sunshine, Kirby, and Ms Cherry. See you all later.

Hope the Mayo clinic crowd is reading this, Hey Guys.

Tronster

The Italian Job

Since the internet is so expensive here, I am not posting very often. But I wanted to give an update from my last post. I have toured Florence with great success. I was able to see David, by Michelangelo. It was awesome, to think that a man was carved out of marble in a time when power tools were not available, it will strike new levels of respect for classical artists.

If you are to take a trip to Italy, I would say a stop in Florence would be a must. First, it is not as busy as Rome, and the food is better. I think the laid back attitudes of the folks there contribute to the overall feeling that Florence is a nice little town to visit. If you come to Rome on Vacation, Florence is a one and half hour train ride from Rome. If you take the Eurostar Train. It is non stop, but pay for the first class ticket. The extra room is worth the few extra Euros. (It cost us 47 euros per person) You can make a day of it because the trains run just about all night.

Here in Rome, I was able to get out and view a bunch of the sites. We have a centrally located hotel close to the Spanish steps. We walked from there to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and then to the Colosseum. It will cost you 11 euros to enter the Colosseum. I think it is worth it if you have never been inside before. On a previous trip I made it to the Vatican museum, so I did not go there this time, but it takes a couple of hours to see everything in there, so plan on a good morning for that if you go. If I have the opportunity to hit it this time around I will, but it isn't looking good for the home team.

In a future post I will give some information about different restaurants and areas to eat.

More Adventures in Italy

Well not really adventures. Just work. But I plan on correcting that this weekend. So keep checking back.

I wanted every one of my readers to know that I was still on the road. Internet cost 14 Euros a day. Today was a pretty normal day, got up and had breakfast and then went to work. I did go to a good restaurant here in Florence for lunch. Funny thing about Italy, they have Mexican restaurants, Chinese restaurants but no Italian Restaurants. They don't call it Italian Food either. They just call them restaurants that serve food. Go Figure. They do have some great American Restaurants, McDonald's and Burger King. (That was a joke) Most countries have a food that is associated with them, Italians have pasta, the Chinese have rice, America has Burger King. I think we are a little behind on the fine dining experiences.

This is a great city with a ton of history, but it also has a ton of graffiti. Great architecture and beautiful buildings are de-faced by young people. It really is a shame. My favorite artist, MICHELANGELO, has his master piece, David, on display here and I am hoping to get a chance to see it.

Finished watching the series of Firefly. Pretty interesting in crossing the Wild West with Star Trek. Some of the characters were over the top cheesy, but entertaining. In one of the episodes a particular character was a hero on a world he had visited previously. The residents had built a statue of him and wrote songs about him and everything. It turns out he was a hero because he made a mistake that cost him a bunch of money. The series didn't last long on TV but I sure enjoyed it. When I return to Rome this weekend I plan on watching the First season of Scrubs everyday afterwork.

Talk again soon.