Roma

Monday, May 24
Roma, Italia

Today we spent a lovely day in Rome. I had started to take it off of
our list because it was so hot the last time we were here. It started
out hot this morning as we were walking to the train station about 15
minutes away. I decided to wear sandals, even though I knew it would be
hard walking on the cobblestones. I was in shorts and sandals, and
burning up - while the Romans were in long-sleeves, jackets and boots.
Apparently 90 degree weather is too cold for them. We made out way
into town on the train, then switched to the Metro like pros. We were
able to read the map, and managed to go to the Colosseum, the Circus
Maximus, the Forum, the Pyramid, and, of course, Trevi Fountain to throw
in more coins for my return trip! I told Lonnie that if he planned on
coming back with me again, he had better throw a coin in as well, so he
did. We stopped and saw a short film about Rome. It was great to get
in out of the heat. When we came out of the theater, we found that it
had been raining and the temperature had dropped considerably. It
started raining again, but we had our trusty raincoats, so we forged on
ahead. It was fantastic! And, such a blessing from the Lord! There
were no people in front of Trevi Fountain, bland no people sitting on
the Spanish Steps! You don't see that very often.

We were having such an enjoyable time, until we got ready to go back to
our hotel. We did well with the Metro lines, but couldn't figure out
how to catch the train back out of town to our station near the Hotel.
By the time we realized that we couldn't figure it out, we had missed
the last train! We went back to Central Termini to get help, but there
was a long line at the one counter that had a real person. By then my
feet and back were really hurting, so we decided we would get a Taxi and
just pay whatever. It turned out to not be so bad after all. We got
a quick Roman ride through town straight to our Hotel!!! And, I didn't
even have to walk back to the Hotel from the Train Station!! What a
great day!