Adventures of the Golden Girls (AKA The Fab 4)

We got up yesterday morning around 6 am or so.  Our driver was picking us up and 8:45 - turns out it was 8:30 - for a ride to Fiumicino airport.  Its name is actually Leonardo da Vinci International Airport, but it’s in Fiumicino, a town outside of Rome, so it’s identified as that.  The airport code is FCO, so there you go. Anyway, we arrived in plenty of time, and did the usual airport things.  We boarded the plane and were told we would be half an hour or so late in taking off.  There is an air-traffic controllers strike going on in France, so it’s a little more complicated in Europe with all the extra air traffic happening at this time of year.  We just had to bide our time.  Then we had a little longer journey because we could not fly over France for the same reason.  Normally we would. Anyway, we made it home by around 12:30 am Rome time (6:30 pm here).  A little tired.  The guys were waiting for us at our place as they apparently h...

 Sorry I didn’t do this blog earlier.  We had to get up and get moving yesterday morning, so I didn’t have time. Thursday morning, we relaxed for a while at our place and we had some lunch there, eating up bits of things.  No rush.  But we had a tour booked for 1:45 pm over near the Coloseeum.  Off we went. Of all the tours done in Rome, in terms of the guide, stories, and items of little-known interest, this was the one.  First of all, this is how we got around.  It was fun. Our first stop was at a small church, along the Appian Way. The Appian Way was an extremely important road to the Romans.  If you took it all the way, to Brindisi, then across the Adriatic Sea, and kept going, you would end up in Istanbul (previously Constantinople).  “All roads lead to Rome.” So, the story here at this little church is that it contains the footsteps of where Peter turned around.  Jesus met Peter and told Peter to go back to Rome.  He was escap...

 Yesterday morning, on our agenda, we had a tour of Ancient Rome.  You canNOT come to Rome without seeing this stuff. We met up with our guide in the morning and a group of us started off with the Roman Forum.  I won’t bore you with all the spots we stopped at, but here are a couple of shots of the Forum from atop Palatine Hill.  This forum dates back to about the 8th C. BC.  The age of this stuff is incredible. And this is apparently the tomb of Julius Caesar.  Why people drop flowers there, I have no idea.  He was not the nicest person! And this is the Arch of Constantine - if I get this correctly - the first Roman Emperor who adopted Christianity.  He was in charge in the early 4th century, so around 325 AD. And, of course, the Colosseum.  Outside, then in. This is the Colosseum inside.  You can see people standing at the other end on a floor.  That’s where the floor used to be.  Everything in the middle is what was under gr...

Yesterday morning, we venture into the old city centre.  When we got off the bus at Piazza Venezia, this is the first thing we saw.  Called Vittortiano - Altar of the Fatherland - inaugurated in 1911. Our main goals were the next ones, though. Trevi Fountain The Pantheon And Piazza Navona While travelling from one to the other, we stopped for what we thought was a small snack and a beer at one of the many cafes/trattorias.  It ended up being quite a bit more in size (portions are rather large).  But it was most enjoyable. When we were done with this tramping around, we managed to flag down a taxi who took us to our meeting destination for the Vatican Museums tour we were doing this afternoon.   Another great shot of the dome. A couple of the loooonnggg hallways we walked through. I have to say, I don’t recall walking through all of the areas we walked through in the past.  Overall, we didn’t particularly enjoy the tour.  Our guide was very knowledgeabl...