Saturday May 25 in Rome

This morning we were treated to a lovely breakfast at our hotel.  It was a really a nice buffet and here they served American coffee.  Did I tell you that one of our friends in Calabria said that they call  American coffee acqua sporca (dirty water).  I tend to agree after this week! I enjoyed the espresso and the cappuccinos.  They were more like delicacies or desserts.  But this morning it was nice to have the choice.

At 9:30 a.m. we caught a cab to the Piazza Navona where we would meet our tour guide at 10 a.m.
We arrived a bit early so I sat and watched people and Patty took tons of photos.

Fountain of the Four Rivers by Bernini

At 10 a.m. on the dot our tour guide, Robert Coghlan, walked out of the tourist station with his sign for us.  Tour guides in Italy are "official."  They study for it and they get certified.  He definitely knew his history and archaeology and  much more.  He is from Ireland, living in Rome, with a wife and 3-year-old daughter.  We thoroughly enjoyed him and his walking pace really helped us.  My legs and feet were so much better, but it is still a lot of walking.

We saw and heard so much there's no way I can repeat it all.  But we saw the Pantheon, the Fountain of Trevi, Trajan's Column and more.  I'll just put up photos and you can have a look.

The hole in the dome of the Pantheon that lets in light 

Rafael is buried in the Pantheon

Trevi Fountain.  It is so beautiful.  I had no idea it was so grand.

Patty and I throwing the coin over our shoulder.  We had to reconstruct the shot!
And evidently we threw it over our wrong shoulder!

Trajan's Column; lots of history!

Ruins they continue to unearth

A part of a statue of a horse that was recently unearthed in the area.  Discoveries are still happening!

Elevator in Colosseum our guide skillfully guided us to.
The stairs are very deep so this was a discovery I was happy  to see!

Patty got this great shot with her Go Pro camera  

I was here!

We enjoyed Robert very much.  He was also very kind to us, keeping a pace that I especially could handle, knowing where the "toilets" were.  That's what they call them, not rest rooms.  He stopped for coffee before our timed, skip the line, entry to the Colosseum.   At this place they made you your own ice cream bar with specific toppings etc.  Didn't take a photo, but it hit the spot with an espresso.  Patty chose an American coffee which came with its own special coaster.

As a side note, sometimes when I travel I take photos of all the bathrooms because they are so unique.  This time I didn't really do that, but I will say that Italy adds a bidet to their bathrooms, which other countries in Europe do too, and without getting too personal I have to wonder why that has never caught on to the United States.

Anyway, at this establishment, we went upstairs to the "toilet" to use the facilities before continuing our walk to the Colosseum and there was a code type lock on the door.  What??  So Robert said, "Do you have your receipt from the coffee?" And we did, and sure enough on the receipt is the code to the bathroom.  Isn't that clever?




Since we're talking clever, another thing they do here that I think is clever is that at the hotels, your room key card is also used in a card reader inside the door to turn on your electricity for the room.  My daughter Ramona said that they are starting to do that in American hotels too.  Wonder if they make those for houses?  Nice way to keep the electric bill down.

I think we left our devices on to charge one afternoon or evening when we went for a walk and they didn't charge because we took the card keys with us.

This is a photo our guide showed us of what the Colosseum would have looked like in its day.  Now there is only one original section standing. 

A selfie!

Sister Patty looks much more elegant than I.  My cracked lips show a little dehydration!
You can tell she's used to posting on Instagram!  But we both exude happiness, don't we?

When we finished our tour of the Colosseum, we walked outside and there were some street vendors selling some souvenirs of the Colosseum.  Of course I wanted to bring my family and my Department some authentic souvenirs from Rome!  So since they were only one Euro each I bought the vendor out!   It was not until I got home home and unpacked that I saw the "Made in China" sticker.  It's kind of like trying to bring an authentic gift from America to people in another country.  A lot of American gifts and souvenirs seem to be made outside of U.S.A. (I have settled on maple syrup.  That's a true American delicacy.  If I had known I was going to make such good friends in Calabria, I would have brought them some!)

It turned out that when we finished our tour, we were only a few blocks from our hotel.  So we bid goodbye to Robert and walked home, stopping first for lunch at a little cafe.

When we entered our hotel, the bar by the front desk was open so we ordered two drinks and just sat in the lobby drinking them, resting our "barking dogs."

That was a good drink, something Italian, I'm pretty sure it was Aperol Spritz Cocktail (Spritz Veneziano).  The next time I have a long week off, I'll be looking for one of these!

That evening we brought our computers up to the hotel terrace, "plugged in" to electricity and wifi and had our supper there.  Patty took a few photos from there.  She is an excellent chronicler and photographer.  I just took photos on my phone and only when I remembered, but she was a true professional!

If you want to see this trip from her perspective and more photos, suggest going to www.reclaimingpatty.com and pattysfitnessjourney on Instagram.