I arrived in Rome at around mid-day, local time, after a 9 or 10 hour journey including the stop-over in London to change planes. I was able to to get from the airport into Rome after wandering about for a while. Fiumicino Airport is kinda what Edmonton International Airport was like back in the '70's - quite different from JFK and Heathrow - only bigger and stupider. (Is that a word? stupider? Maybe double d?). In fact the shuttle bus driver took me directly to the B&B that I had booked.

Trouble was, there was now way of knowing exactly whether or not I was at my hotel, because there was no signage indicating such. Fortunately, Italians are extremely friendly people and I was helped out by someone who just happened to be entering the same building for her work. She was able to contact the proprieter and 10 minutes later, I was being shown my room.

A private single room with its own bathroom, no less! I was expecting a shared dorm with the bathroom down the hall. This is a huge bonus, especially after NYC. Mind you, it is 20 Euros/night, as opposed to US$20/night. About C$32, give or take. Not bad for a place within spitting distance of Piazza San Pietro and Il Vaticano.

I was super sleepy when I got to my room, and so I took a pretty casual pace until later in the afternoon, when I plucked up the gumption to jump on the bus and head to - ???? Not really knowing where I was going I happened to leap off the bus at the base of the Campodoglio, which is a pretty important spot in Rome. It is on the Capitoline Hill which is basically where Rome was founded (remember Romulus? It was his idea.) I proceeded to follow my nose which took me to a fantastic view point overlooking the Roman Forum and, in the distance (not too far), was the Colosseo. And backing all that up was this fantastic sunset with these fabulous cumulus clouds. Oh No! I forgot my camera. Trust me, it was absolutely spectacular, and mind boggling trying to get my head around on the age of what I was looking at. Four hundred and something BC. That's a long time ago.

Remarkably, I found my way back to the B&B, and then walked in the almost deserted neighbourhood to find a place for supper. Which I did. Please - no pizza! Pizza is EVERYWHERE here. I was determined not to succumb to the seductions of that ever present choice, getting instead a salad with a bunch of healthy goodness, and focaccia blanca. Okay, focaccia is basically pizza crust, but in this case it was plain and came with olive oil (a whole bottle - there's no such thing as too much olive oil!) And a half bottle of vino rosso. Buono Venutti a Roma (is that corretto? Close enough, per mio.)

So, a person can spend an aweful lot of time and money visiting any number of important museums and ancient sites in this city. All are super impressive and of course one can have ambitions to see as many as possible - but that's just NOT possible, in fact. Unless you really really like museums more than anything, that is. I decided that the best I can shoot for is a 50/50 split between museums and the neighbourhoods. It can take several hours to do either, and so one choice of each per day seems reasonable.

So far I have seen the Piazza San Pietro, which, being a Wednesday was filled with the faithful awaiting the appearance of you-know-who ( I decided I didn't need to stick around for that). From there I went to see the Castel Sant 'Angelo, which is important to me 'cause it is where Tosca throws herself off the parapet (SO sad). Then to the Colosseo and the Forum for which I paid even more euros to take a guided tour, which was a good thing to do. In fact the guide for the Forum was a Canadian gal who was really very, very good. She really knows her ancient Roman history. Infinitely better than the local Roman guide for the Colosseum. Then I did some afternoon/evening exploration of the Trestavere area, which is very interesting. It was all great and by the time I got back to my accommodation with some groceries for supper, it was late, late, and I was knackered.

And I guess I'm knackered now, 'cause I have no idea why or how this type became italics. (perhaps it's because I'm in Italy, har har!) That's 'cause I had another long day, what with buying a train ticket for Sorrento, which to at least two hours, and then heading for another neighbourhood to explore (Testacio), which has a fabulous market and a 30 meter hill made up entirely of broken amphoras and terracotta pots from centuries of disposal. Houses and auto-shops and cafes exist at the base of this enormous pile of rubble, which probably took me at least 40 minutes to circumnavigate on foot. After re-orienting myself I went back to the Capitoline Museo and did the audio self tour of the exhibits there. That took up the rest of my day. It is full of unbelievably old and beautiful works of art and sculpture. Mind numbing after about 2 hours!