Italy: Day 8 - Rome 9/12/05

We woke up early Monday morning and stuffed ourselves into the car with Lorenzo's mother's sister Chi Chi and her husband Pepe and little Elliott. We were on our way to Rome! Although I really wanted to go to Cinque Terre, Lorenzo's mother convinced us that going to Cinque Terre was like going to a little village in Texas and going to Rome was like going to New York City. Since Jennie had never been to Italy, I didn't want her to miss out to Rome. Lorenzo's cousin Luka, was going to be there to take us around. As soon as we arrived, Luka was ready to go. We first went to see the Mouth of Truth. Yep, fingers still intact, just like the first time I stuck my hand in there.


A backside view of Piazza de Venezia.


At this point, Jennie and I were hot, hungry and grumpy. We needed to sit down at a cafe and enjoy a latte or two. The three of us sat down and ordered one cafe latte, one bottle of water, one beer and two paninis. Guess how much? Mind you this was not a particularly nice cafe nor were the paninis anything special. Total was 29 Euros, equivalent to about $37 US Dollars. It was crazy! I couldn't believe it. Jennie and I were on vacation, yes, but we didn't want to feel robbed. We finished up and continued our private tour.

Ruins.


A beautiful corridor shot.


The iron gate outside of Piazza de Venezia.


More ruins.


Another green door! Yay! Though the door probably wasn't originally green... OK, doesn't really count, does it?


The coliseum.


Luka eating the largest gelato that could ever fit on a cone.


Jennie eating a smaller gelato. See me in the reflection?


Luka went home to take a nap. Jennie and I decided to walk around Piazza di San Pietro for a bit.


Finally, we went in. Here lies Pope John Paul II.


So, the story goes on. After going inside the Vacatican, Jennie and I got thirsty again. We stopped off at a truck selling random things to buy some water. They selling Gatorade so we bought two bottles of that instead. Guess how much two tiny bottles of Gatorade cost? 9 Euros! That's about $11 US Dollars! That's just insane! Jennie and I really had it by this time. Rome was crazy, we couldn't even cross the street! Me, a native of LA and Taipei and Jennie, a native of New York City, had to clutch together to cross the street in Rome. How ridiculous! It was hot, there were tons of people, you had to wait for everything and worst of all, we kept feeling like we were being robbed. We made an executive decision to leave Rome and go to Cinque Terre as originally planned. Returning back to Luka's, we had to break the bad news to Chi Chi.

At night, Luka was nice enough to take Jennie and I out for a night on the town. We met a few of his friends who were all very nice. Local partying in Rome was to buy liquor or beer at a shop and then drink at general meetings spots like a small campo. It was strange to see clowns, people walking on stilts, lots and lots of dogs, and smell a lot of pot. I guess life in the city really isn't too different continent to continent. Jennie didn't like the dogs too much.