Rome: Day 1

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For those of you reading this on Facebook,Original posting found on www.Henrickatlarge.blogspot.com.
This post reflects events that took place on July 9th 2009.



I woke up early. Somewhere around 6:30 Am. I put on clothes, checked my gear, and headed out into the streets of Rome in search of history and antiquity. I repeated the path that I had the night before. Going down towards the Imperial forum. Went around the Trittoria, toward the backside of the ancient forum, and ended up toward the read of Colloseo. There was a huge line in front of the Colosseum when I got up to it. It probably took about 2 hours to get inside, so I decided to come back at a later date. Maybe in the morning when it wasn't so crowded. That section of Rome finished, I walked off in search of some of the other very notable sights. When you get to Rome, you can get all of these little books and guides. I recommend them very much. But the map that you can get anywhere, the own that the city gives out is priceless. It is very accurate, detailed, and above all else clear. This little handy dandy thing came through for me so many times on my trip that I have to acknowledge how great and useful it actually was. Like I said, I also got one of the small guides. These are dispensable because it tells you about stuff that you normally wouldn't have know about. I used it to add in many sights to my already dense list of 'to-sees'.

From the ancient forum, I went through most of the other notable places. These include, but are not limited to: Fontana Trevi, the Spanish steps, Fontana del Tritone, Porto Pia, Piazza de Poppolo, Piazza de Spagna, et al. All in all I walked around for 15 hours that day, and my feet were almost broken and on fire. I had stopped only a few times for coffee or a snack. Striking off in search of the next target as soon as I was finished with whatever I was eating at the time. I decided that I liked the fountains the best. For some reason I think that the art in fountains is the most 'watchable'. Maybe this is due to the dynamic and practical nature of the fountain. There are also always people around these fountains and there is lots of people watching possible (especially like Fontana trevi or the Spanish steps). After the fact, I realized there was something about the work of Bernini that I am very drawn to. At the end of the day I consulted my little guide book in order to correctly name the sights of my pictures. In doing so, I realized that all of the statues and fountains that had really struck me were from Bernini. On another note, I was noticing a tremendous police presence around Rome that day. I don't know why. I mean, there was nothing to say that there weren't always this many police officers in Rome. Being that I had never been their before. Though I couldn't help but feel that this wasn't normal for some reason. I found out later on, while at an internet cafe for a spell, that Barrack was in town. Kinda cool I think. Me and Obama picking to visit Italy at the same time. Hopefully no stupid shit goes down here.

Supplemental:

I have never seen so many scooters in any one place at a time in my life before! Automobiles are aplenty here, though they are outnumbered 50 to 1 by the little cycles. I have seen every style, make and model of scooter that was ever made. Joe Negri would be in heaven! The classic 'Vespa' is all over. From the slick, to the practical, to the luxurious, every type of scooter can be found in Rome. It makes a lot of sense though, to have a scooter in a place like this. The streets are narrow, crooked and cramped. There isn't much space to park, or store a car for that matter. My God, if every scooter was replaced by a car tomorrow... Well there just wouldn't be enough room for all of them. There would be piles and piles of cars in mountainous heaps were a small scooter-parking area was. I guess it's just out of necessity. Like an species of animal adapting to its surrounding environment. Hmmmm, Darwinistic transport. Very interesting.

After my sightseeing marathon, I went out for a very unremarkable dinner, with bad service (one of the let downs of European tourist cities). Though I got over it, and went to my usual cafe for an Americano and Campari. I then took off to the hotel room and bed. Tomorrow was huge, The Vatican!!!