The flight from Philadelphia to Rome was fairly uneventful. There was a slight hour and a half delay, but at this point I was just happy to get off the ground and to Rome's international airport. After I landed, my luggage came through and I took a taxi to the hotel. Since I decided not to sleep before my flight to Philadelphia (and I didn't sleep much on the plane), I've probably gotten about three hours of sleep in the last 36 hours. But strangely I'm more excited than tired to be half way around the world experiencing a city that I've never seen before. Once I landed, I dropped off my luggage at the hotel and grabbed a bus then the Metro (subway) from Corellia to the Termni station. One there, I transfered trains and went to the Colesseo stop to see the Colosseum and the surrounding areas. Thanks to one of my co-workers (we'll call her "J") for letting me borrow that great map of Rome. That really came in handy today while navigating the public transportation system in the city. I found it a little odd that unlike most cities, Rome doesn't have train routes prominently displayed throughout the stations. So if you don't have a map ahead of time, it can get tricky to navigate if you don't stay on your toes. As you come out of the Metro station, the enormous Colosseum is directly in front of you. The building (or what's left of it) is truly a testament to the power of the Roman empire. I must say that it was more run down than I expected, but learning about the history of the building and the brutal combat that took place within those walls, really opened my eyes to the brutality of that age.
Then this evening Chris and I started walking from our hotel through a park called the Villa Doria Pamphill just southwest of the city. We didn't really have a plan, we just picked a direction and headed towards the city. This park was vast and beautiful to say the least. It was hard to believe that just a few miles to the East was the city of Rome. After walking a mile or so through the park we got into the city and started wandering through small alleyways and found a quaint little Italian restaurant. One of the many nice things about this place was that it was way off the beaten path from the standard tourist traps. We sat outside and leisurely ate some great pasta dishes with a few glasses of beer. Then started walking deeper into the cities through more alleyways and came across a variety of small local bars. We didn't stop at any tonight because we wanted to explore the city and see the sights at night. This allowed us to catch-up on things and get some great shots of Rome at night.
We walked for miles around the city crossing the Tiber river several times until our feet couldn't take us any further. We headed back shortly after that and now I'm definitely ready to crash. So this is it for now. It was a good first day in Rome and a promsing start to seeing this fine city.
