#5 Unforgettable Rome..Euro2006(05.27.06)

Paolo met us at the train station in Rome with flowers. He had just flown in that morning, rented a car, and was waiting for us to arrive. As were were walking to the car from the train station, we passed by the hostel where we had our reservation prior to the change of plans when Paolo decided to meet us in Rome. I must say that I am so glad we didn't have to stay there. Who would've thought that a cheap hostel directly across the street from a huge European train station might not be the best idea?

The car he rented was one of the bigger smart cars, meaning there was a "back seat." So we played Tetrus with me and the suitcases and Paolo drove us around Rome and to the awesome hotel he'd made reservations for us at.



I got settled into my room then met them in the lobby for some sight seeing. We drove to a subway station and took the subway that would take us nearest to the Colosseum and Centro Storico (Rome's historic center).

Rome was completely amazing. I was in awe the entire time I was there. It is an amazing feeling to be walking down a street surrounded by shops and offices, turn a corner, and find yourself looking at a 2000 year old building you've only seen briefly in movies or history books. Everywhere in Rome there is history. One of the first familiar sights I saw was the Spanish Steps. I do have to admit that the only place I'd seen these steps and paid attention to the fact that they were the Spanish Steps in Rome was thanks to that diamonds are forever commercial where the man tells the woman he'd marry her all over again, and she looks up and her mom and dad are there too (must be nice, rich bastards). Unfortunately Emily has the only pictures of me on the steps and for some reason her computer was unable to make me copies of any of the pictures she took. Fortunately, she was able to make copies of all of mine.

Walking through the streets, there were random sidewalk shows and people you could pay to have your picture taken with. For instance, this Roman soldier will pull his double edged sword (or gladius) from his scabbard and thrust it into your chest while throwing a javelin into the back of a fleeing spectator for the bargain price of two euros. There were also jugglers, human statues that come to life and scare the crap out of small children, and there was one guy who looked like he was running, but he was actually standing still. I stood beside him and acted like I was running with him. Again, Emily has that picture. You can see him right in the middle of this next picture if you look closely.....closer....look closer....he's wearing a suit....

Yeah, I know. I can hardly see him myself. But you can see that the streets and piazzas were packed full of people with the occasional crazy speeding taxi driver barreling through. This was my favorite street in Rome...Via dei Condotti...one of the most expensive streets in the world. This street leads directly to the Spanish Steps. This is a picture from Via dei Condotti looking back to the Steps.Okay, now this is the part where I tell you about the totally hot, sexy red Francesco Rogani purse I bought on Via dei Condotti....We were walking down this street with every store you ever saw in a Vogue magazine. Bulgari. Hermes. Valentino. Cartier. Massoni. And all the girls sing "Do..da-do...da-do....d0-da-do-do" So all I wanted to do was buy something. Anything. We walked in and out of stores and touched Prada, and felt up Dolce & Gabbana...yeah baby. But nothing was within my reach. I'd been looking at some Italian leather purses here and there and we happened upon a store, Francesco Rogani, which was entirely Italian leather bags. This was the sort of store where you press the buzzer and someone unlocks the door and takes you around the store. So, I told Em and Paolo to wait a second, I stood behind a couple waiting to go in, and when the saleswoman came to the door, I followed them in like I totally belonged there. So I'm walking across the hardwood floor, picking up different handbags and purses and smelling them, and I eventually made my way to the back of the store where, God bless them, there was a wall of sale items. They were arranged by color. Red, green, yellow, brown, black, white.....I made my way straight up to the red bags. The beautiful bright red lucious leather bags. I found two that I liked and as I became engrossed in my decision, a saleswoman who'd been watching me walked up to me and said in her sexy Italian accent, "You know you won't be able to make your decision util you see yourself carrying the bag." The store had these enormous floor to ceiling mirrors. So she told me not to be shy and to walk in front of the mirror exactly the way I would walk with a bag such as this. So, being me, I took off parading myself back and forth in front of these mirrors...with this awesome saleswoman cheering me on and laughing with me and making me feel like the most important client she'd had all day. So I fell in love with my sexy red leather bag and she took it from me and walked with me to the checkout where the owner asked me my name, where I was from, and to tell him all about Texas and President Bush. While he visited with me, the saleswoman wiped down my bag, placed it in a cloth drawstring bag, then inside a shopping bag lined with tissue paper. I think she may have thrown in some butterfly kisses and magic fairy dust if I'd watched her closely enough. This, all over a bag on the sale wall bought by a girl who snuck in the door. Of course, I should mention that their sale wall prices were still about four times as much as I would even consider spending on a purse normally, and it was the most expensive thing I bought on the whole trip. You'll notice that my sexy red bag appears first and foremost in almost all of the pictures of me for the rest of the trip. I still love smelling it. Mmmmmm......Our next destination was Piazza Navona. Note: I'm holding my newly purchased Francesco Rogani shopping bag. Piazza Navona has a beautiful fountain and actually, most of what I knew about all of the Piazzas and fountains I saw I learned from the Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons. There's a great map in the front of the book and it was pretty cool that I saw everything mentioned in the book with the exception of Vatican City. Unfortunately, there was no way we had time to see it. So, I say next time, I'm so at Vatican City. All of the Piazzas had a unique Egyptian obelisk, and Piazza Navona was home to the beautiful Fountain of Four Rivers which Em and I are standing in front of in the picture above. Here's another picture of Piazza Navona...the larger building to the right of the picture is the Church of Saint Agnes in Agony. From Piazza Navona, we walked over to Piazza della Rotunda.
Piazza della Rotunda is home to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is a must see in Rome. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the building, even after almost 2000 years. Can you imagine what this building has seen?
Unfortunately, we couldn't go inside that particular afternoon. I heard someone say there was a ceremony in progress. Stupid ceremony. So I didn't get to see the famous occulus in the roof of the Pantheon, but I was still amazed to be in it's prescence. It's such an odd and unfamiliar feeling to be so overwhelmed by history. The aura of the building is such that I felt that if I were to sit and stare at the building, and soak in everything about it, for a long enough period of time, I might actually see it breathe.