Still more from Rome…

The next day, I headed back down to the colosseum, using the light rail and then subway. I’m liking Rome’s subway system. You can go practically anywhere. What I planned for today was a open topped, double decker bus ride around town. Sort of a way to get acquainted with Rome. The buses are hop on, hop off type that pass by all the famous sites in Rome. You can jump off anywhere along the route to explore, then hop back on another of the buses to continue the circuit. Pretty cool. Back in the ol’ USA, I’ve never taken a tour bus. They must be here somewhere, but I don’t recall seeing them.

So I just did a Google search of bus tours in New York and yes, they are there. And Viator is there too. It’s $48 for a open bus tour of NY. I’m a big fan of Viator over in Europe because their online system is so well designed and easy to use. You can buy your ticket online and print your ticket or, with your Android tablet or phone, just show them your ticket on your device to board the bus. Also, you can have them call you and remind you of the tour departure times and locations. And…they have tour guides with clip boards when you arrive at the bus and your name will be there so you get to board. And yes, I did see web sites for tours, trains, airlines, and buses in Europe where they weren’t anywhere near that helpful or organized.

Since my itinerary called for a week in Rome, I wasn’t in any hurry to run around Rome like an idiot, but I did have a list of things I’d looked up online back at home and wanted to vist. It didn’t help that I caught a cold and cough on the freakin’ train ride to the LA airport. Curse my luck. So, OK, I lost a couple days in Rome due to illness, I wasn’t going to let that wreck my entire trip…besides, it was already slacking off and I was feeling pretty well.

I’ll start this post with a few pictures of my colosseum and beyond visit I didn’t post last time.

All these historically important ruins are within spitting distance of the colosseum and I just walked over to them. They are up on one of the 7 hills of Rome and I think they went back 1,000 years. Built out of former ruins, and gleanings from the colosseum. Like the marble.

Since I got to the colosseum early in the morning, I was seeing more and more tourists as the day rolled on, but not as crowded as it would/could have been if I’d delayed or taken a later tour. I’m imagining it would have been a nightmare to tour the colosseum just a couple hours after our group went through.

This large area sort of looks like an olympic pool. Actually it was a garden. Must have been quite spectacular in it’s day.

Look at this masonary work. Off in the distance is the colosseum. We’re up on a hill amongst other ancient ruins. How amazing would it have been to have lived here during it’s heyday. Down below these opulent structures were some tiny stone buildings used by the slaves and workers. Not quite as luxurious. 

There’s a certain consistency to the overall design of Rome you can sense from up here on the hill. It’s obvious that the Roman engineers actually planned the city. Of course we’ll never know what they tore down to make their vision a reality, mostly hovels of the poor I’d wager.

I’d read some stories of how unfriendly Rome’s citizen were but I think that’s old information because wherever I went, and whomever I talked to, was friendly and helpful. Of course it helped that I never acted like a jerk.

After I’d toured those ruins, I wandered off down the hill to a nice wooded area…tree lined streets and all. And there were a bunch of tour buses all lined up. There were like 3 or 4 companies so I went around checking and they all seemed to go to the exact same places, offer the same amenities, and cost the same. Pretty much anyway. I wasn’t really being picky, I was just wandering. Eventually, I found one that I liked, paid my money and wandered upstairs to find a seat. They leave every 15 minutes so there’s really no reason to jump on a bus just before they leave in order to save 15 minutes because if you do, you’re likely to find the open air upstairs already full and you’ll get to sit downstairs. Not as fun.

More soon…