Thursday, November 24, 2011

A Great Thanksgiving in Rome - Sick and All

The "natural" medicine I got from the pharmacist hasn't helped at all. I had one more allergy pill left and finally took it at about 3 am so I could breath and therefore, sleep. I still got up at about 7:30, walked Seymour and watched a little TV. They have two House Hunters-type shows here, one is in Italian and one is British; so I watched those this morning. Then at about 10:30 we headed into Rome center, by tram and then subway. Armed with my map, I found Trevi Fountain (I've been spelling it wrong) and although I look horrible and feel bad, I had someone take a picture of me throwing a coin into the fountain:





Here are some other pictures of my favorite fountain:









We then walked over to the Pantheon. It is amazing to see these things in the center of a bustling city:









I decided to have my big meal at a restaurant in front of here. I didn't splurge too much. I had the special which included bruschetta which had fresh tomatoes and basil on garlic bread, spaghetti and a glass of wine for only 10 euro. They also charge a table fee of 2 euro and even though you don't have to tip here, I added an extra euro (big spender) so my whole meal was only 13 euro. We sat outside and I started talking to the people at the next table. They were from Florida and their daughter has been living in Germany for the past 2 years but her husband's job is ending so they are heading back to the USA in a month. It was almost like we had a Thanksgiving dinner together. It was so much fun and they were great people. That was a bonus to my day.

Then we headed to the Piazza Navona. They call it the city's most iconic square. It was built on the ruins of an arena from 86 AD and was paved over in the 15th century.













There are street performers everywhere but I particularly liked this one:





A few more pics:













They have a bike borrowing program, where if you buy a Roma card, you are also entitled to borrow a bike from one location and leave it in another. this location doesn't have any bikes left but gives you an idea of how it it set up. Pretty cool.





I was getting tired so decided to take the bus back to the Termini - but again got on the wrong bus and ended up at the Colosseum and Roman Forum area. While on the bus I saw one of the guys dressed in Roman clothes. This was a big day for entertainment. He turned around before I could get a good picture:




When we got of the bus, we walked around and I only had a chance to take one picture before the battery on my camera died. Here's my picture:



I know my way around the Colosseum and found the subway stop to take us back to Termini and then on to the tram to get home. Oh, and once we got to Termini I stopped in the supermarket to get some snacks and then on to the Farmacia AGAIN to get more medicine. This time I told them I had allergies because the worst part is the constantly running nose and not being able to breath and therefore not being able to sleep. So, they gave me something new and said I can't have alcohol with it. No Limoncello tonight!

I currently have a load of clothes in the washer. I just pressed a bunch of buttons and the washer started. I hope that will also start the dryer. I am so looking forward to having clothes dried in a dryer after 3 months of being here. If I accidentally put the water on hot again, the rest of my clothes will all be grey. Oh well, I can survive for a few more days with dingy looking clothes.

All in all, it has been a different, but wonderful Thanksgiving.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

2 comments:

  1. Susan,

    Great shot of you and Seymour at the fountain. Thanks for sending more pics of you!

    I was glad to hear you had a little fellowship with your meal.

    See you soon,

    Joan

    ReplyDelete
  2. I second Joan on both! Glad you got a pic with YOU in it! So nice! And so glad you made some Thanksgiving friends. What a blessing! -Shannon

    ReplyDelete