After
playing the role of major tourists the day before, it was time to do it once
again as this was to be our second and last full day in Rome. We started out by taking the subway over to
what is arguably the most famous and recognized building in the city (thanks
Russell Crowe), the Colosseum. Even
though we were visiting during the "slow season" there were still
thousands of people there which in turn led to a monstrosity of an entry
line. Not being one to like to pay
extra, it therefore pained me when we were told we could skip the long line if
we paid an extra few bucks for a self-guided audio tour. In the end, the audio guide was interesting
and informative and for once in my life I actually knew what I was looking
at. After absorbing the solid history
lesson that was the Colosseum, the wifey and I next made our way over to Palatine
Hill which was right across the street.
This was followed by us walking for a few hours and staring at various
ruins, statues, and other things which would give a Roman history buff a raging
boner, but only moderately succeeded in getting us aroused.
One thing
that I find absolutely fascinating about Rome is the sheer number of street
vendors and people selling useless key chains, purses, sunglasses, post cards,
etc all over the city. Every major
tourist attraction comes complete with its own set of touts (sometimes
numbering into the hundreds), who are generally very persistent in harassing
every single person who walks by. I
would estimate there has to be tens of thousands of these fellows operating in
the city, and they appear to all be from North Africa and Southwest Asia
(India, Pakistan, etc). Now I'm no
expert on police and citizen relations, but I am pretty sure that when the
police try to scare you away by driving their car directly into a group of you
and your fake Gucci selling friends it means that what you are doing is
probably illegal and frowned upon.
Either that or the cops like mowing people down as a show of power for
all the tourists. Either way, we did score
some excellent key chains and discounted post cards!
Despite us
almost being witness to a police officer committing vehicular homicide on a
group of illegal immigrants, and after a short rest back at the hotel, we
ventured on to a couple of Rome's other famous tourist sites, the Pantheon and
Trevi Fountain. Naturally, both attractions
came complete with tons of dudes trying to hock shit to us outside and I can
now proudly say that I was the victim of a photo-bomb. I never thought someone would want to do ruin
one of my glorious pictures, but alas I guess I am not immune to this new
phenomenon.
Back at the
hotel and officially done with all things touristy in Rome, it was now time to
look forward to our cruise that would be departing the following day. More specifically, it was time to figure what
kind of alcohol we would be allowed to bring on to the ship with us. After some quick research, we were saddened to discover that we were
only allowed to bring on two bottles of wine per stateroom. Never being one to shy away from smuggling
alcohol, I took it upon myself to do a little research and determined that my
best bet for getting extra alcohol onto the ship would be in the form of
cask/box wine. Many of the so-called
"cruise experts" on the online forums said these were not overly
detectable in checked luggage. With that
in mind, I set out to find a grocery store which ended up being a chore unto
itself. Three quarters of an hour later
I found a store that was still open, although the shelves had been picked over
pretty hard. I quickly scooped up two
1.5L bottles of white wine and went searching for some boxes of wine. After scouring the shelves, I found that
there were only two boxes left in the entire store and given my complete lack
of Italian I had no idea if they were red or white wine (Colleen and I usually
only drink white). Seeing as how each
five liter box was only eight Euros, I took the gamble and proceeded to the
check-out aisle with a six pack of beer, two 1.5 liter bottles of wine, and two
five liter casks of wine. What can I
say? I get thirsty! Struggling to make
my way back to the hotel with my bountiful supply of alcohol, I was met with
disappointment when upon opening the two boxes of wine I discovered that they
were in fact red wine. I tossed and
turned with the idea of what to do with them for a bit, and went as far as to
pack the two wine boxes in my one piece of luggage. Eventually, my fear of red
wine destroying my entire wardrobe got the better of me and I decided to leave
them in the hotel as a gift and/or garbage for the housekeepers the next morning. We would only be taking the two bottles of
white wine with us onboard. Sadly, all
this meant was that I would be donating
more money to the cruise ship bars than I had originally planned.
With the
alcohol situation now on the backburner, it was time for one last meal. Seeing as how we had been disappointed time
and again with our culinary options, Colleen and I decided to do what every
snooty tourist/travel expert tells you not to do; go to the local Hard Rock
Cafe for dinner. Surprisingly, the food
was actually the best we had probably had so far on the vacation. Having said that, the service was as terrible
as everywhere else in Rome, although I had a feeling that worrying about
service and food quality would not be a problem once we boarded our
five-and-a-half star cruise ship the following morning!
~Brent~
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