Chicken in Roma
Well it certainly isn’t tomorrow as I promised however, I will try make up for it in photos! (apologies all round for my lateness).
We traveled down to Rome on the toll roads, which I realised was a big mistake. First because they arn’t the cheapest, and secondly we were in a country known for it’s scenery and we took the biggest road we could find. I guess the good news is that we will be coming back up so we have a chance to fix it.
We arrived in Rome pretty much in peak hour. And managed to get very lost, I think we must have drove around for an hour looking for where we were staying, and when we found it, we couldn’t get to it as it was on the other side. During this time I managed to come up with a few observations about drving in Rome:
1. During peak hour single lane roads can somehow fit 2 cars
2. Vesper riders have a serious death wish (they would dart infront of us without notice – and seemed to love it when there was barely enough room)
3. Parking is seriously done as if on a cartoon….if the space isn’t big enough, you just nudge the car a little infront and behind to fit in (we were told there was a waiting list of up to a year to get your car body repaired), we saw 3 cars do this just on our way to dinner!
4. When approaching a T-intersection to a main road DO NOT STOP and wait for an entrance, you will be met with a lot of angry people behind you. You just slow down, drive into the traffic, and somehow people just make room for you. If you are worried, just do what I did, close your eyes and it will be over in no time – although probably don’t do that if you are driving (hehe)
5. When you are tired from driving in circles, just do an illegal left turn into where you are staying (oops!)
6. Finally I can say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do!
The strange thing is, all of the above seemed to work well, so I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad system (although the parking is a little rough), however, it didn’t stop us from unanimously agreeing that the car would stay put until we needed to leave! Luck had it there was a train station about 15 mins walk from where we were staying. Not to mention a lovely street filled with some food places down the road. What more could we want?
Ok, so back to the sight-seeing part.
The next day we got up, and caught the train into the city, and of course our first stop was the Colosseum! We hired a guide to take us around and give us some history. I would give you a snippet of the good stuff, however, he told us so much and I was too busy looking around to notice (hehehe – when the site lists it as a wonder I will link to it – how’s that for laziness?!). Anyway, it was very big and would have been awesome to goto in it’s glory days and see a show or something. I am not sure about the killing and fighting stuff, but maybe a performance of the chicken dance or something would be cool (or, maybe not! lol)
We enjoyed it so much that after we finished we had a lovely drink across the road so we could relax and enjoy the view. Ok, I will now be quiet and show the pics:
Pity I couldn’t put the photos next to each other, they would nearly line up and you would get double chicken!! Coooool.
Next stop was Palatine Hill, and according to mythology, it’s here where the story of Romulus and Remus begins. I always love a good mythological story, don’t you?
In the below picture, can see the white building with the statue? Well, that just happens to be one of my favourite places in Rome, the Piazza Venezia, I didn’t get any photos with me in it, I am not sure what it was about it that I like so much, because it happened to be one of the busiest places traffic wise. I think I visited it a billion times (yes, I might be prone to a little exaggeration!!), however something about it drew me to it.
While we were walking around we found this beautifully manicured pathway that was kind of like a huge maze for this little chicken….so I thought I would have a bit of a play before continuing with our sight seeing:
In the following days we saw the Spanish steps filled with huge crowds, so I vowed to get there first thing to see if things got any better, and I am so glad I did, check it out:
Well, I have some more photos to show, but I will leave it for next time.
Arividerchi!
Tags: chicken, colosseum, palatine hill, rome, spanish steps, travel
