Aaaaand.... off again!

So it seems that many of the airports are open again, and so the tour that starts tomorrow is going to make; therefore, ours has been canceled. But don't worry campers, we're joining that tour. So, while we'll miss the two days in Stresa in the Lake District, we got two extra days in Rome. And they're covered by the original tour - kind of a like-for-like sorta thing.

In the meantime, the manager of our now-for-real-canceled tour bought the four of us (five, with her along) two-day passes for the hop on/hop off bus tour of Rome. She was our personal guide through the Coloseum, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. We also got to see several other sites on the top of the bus going from one thing to the other.

It was a whirlwind morning to see all those things, but it gave us a taste of it all. We will have all day tomorrow to see it in more depth if we wish, but since all of those things are already on the official tour, we're going to go see the Roman Forum and do the walking tour that Sabine copied for us. And who knows what else!

I know it sounds very cliche, but I was most impressed with the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain. The careful thought put into the design of them both, and the execution of construction is just awe-inspiring. The Colosseum is impressive on a massive scale, taking only two years to build, but at the cost of thousands of lives of Jewish slaves. The scale of this building rivals many modern stadiums, designed to hold over 80,000 people. The Trevi Fountain is just as impressive, but on an individual scale - the work of just a few sculptors. They didn't skimp on detail, no matter the size of the fountain. Each figure in the fountain is just exquisite in the expressions and sense of motion and flow portrayed in each curve.

The amount of history and the diversity of styles from different times is all a bit overwhelming. You're inundated by art, history and architecture with each step and it gets dizzying after a time. Luckily, around almost any corner, there's a piazza for you to relax, rest your feet and gather your thoughts. As well as take a few pictures of an obelisk, a fountain or three, or even more architecture. I could spend hours in these piazzas just soaking it all in.

We did sit on the Spanish Steps - a beautiful staircase with a beauty that hides just how many feet you have to climb to get to the building at the top. Luckily, a short shower cleared out the stairs and it allowed a few of us hardier ones used to 5-minute sun showers in College Station to get great pictures of the steps themselves without hundreds of people sitting on them. Just think, if I had been in the possession of a bit of gelato, I could have been like Audrey Hepburn in "Roman Holiday"!

The best part of the steps though, was the view from the top. You could see almost the entire city - well the rooftops anyway - from where we were. I tried counting the number of church steeples I saw, but quickly lost track there were so many. The roofscape has a personality all it's own and is almost as fascinating as the street level. But not quite!

Due to some technical issues, I have no pictures from my camera to post along with my thoughts right now, but I'll have them when I get home.

Off to bed, and talk to you again tomorrow!