What a gruelling day? I’m shattered, utterly shattered; though to be fair, I’m not sure which is more exhausted, my feet or my credit card. To my surprise, and I suspect my partners feigned surprise, we have hit Rome in the sales, or as I should say Saldi.
A couple of things have been apparent since I arrived. The first, and this should be of no surprise to fellow visitors to the Eternal City, is the traffic. Rome is, in a word, nuts – it’s completely off its rocker. Cars belt along at frantic speed with little regard to signage nor those pesky pedestrians; it’s all been rather much for tyger who, with tyger jnr in tow, almost copped it on a couple of occasions.
The second is the number of shoe shops and leather bag stores (both of particular interest to Mrs tyger) that frequent the streets of Rome. One wonders, with so many leather goods on sale, how long a cow would last roving the streets of the Italian capital before some olive-skinned entrepreneurial young scamp makes a Gucci clutch-bag and a pair of loafers out of its hide.
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It was rather cold today (I understand Athens had snow earlier in the week) but we did hit the majority of the attractions this side of the Tiber River, including the Piazza Navona, Piazza Venezia the Pantheon, and the tourist trap that is the Fontana di Trevi. Tomorrow will be the Vatican City, Castel S. Angelo and the Colosseo. I think 3 full days would be optimum in Rome, 2 days is fine but tiring.
Our hotel is sweet, and positioned perfectly behind the neo-industrial, ultra-modern new Roma Termini (Rome’s new train terminal). This puts us right in the centre of town, unless of course you turn right outside the hotel lobby and head towards Rome’s underbelly, a place that looks like a cross between an impoverished South American favela and Hemel Hempstead town centre. [Shudder]
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Needless to say Rome is awe-inspiring. It literally is one vista after another, with many buildings pre-dating Roman adoption of Christianity with homage’s to both Classical Roman and Egyptian gods and history. You really do feel you are stepping back two millennia and experiencing the classical world.
I will publish my pics on Flickr once they’re dressed up, I will post the link.
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With an exhausted and jet-lagged eight month old, today has been on occasion quite the strain, so we retired early evening, so that the wee-man could catch up on some shut-eye. After a short recess tyger was dispatched on a covert mission to procure wine and pizza for the adults in the party. One thing I forgot to pack was a bottle opener, so tyger was yet again commissioned, this time to scour the hotel for a suitable cork-bludgeoning instrument. Half-an-hour later tyger is left with two bent toothbrushes, a knackered coat hanger, and a stuborn unopened bottle of Chianti. If it weren’t for a rather auspiciously shaped mascara (obtained from Mrs. tyger’s makeup bag), yours truly would be writing to you sour faced and sober.
Off to bed now. I’m shattered, utterly shattered.
Posted Sunday Jan 29 – 10:01
tygerland archive 