happy april fools...clark's birthday (Rome)

 well the first april fools was on clark... i slept till 11 something am.. half day gone...then second april fools was on me...new and diff hotel boy snarked at me cuz i had not checked out yet...apparently left hand does not talk to right and there was not an opening for two nights as i had agreed the night before...so i changed hotels this one nicer but also a little more... must leave rome soon...but it's too much to see...a decisions...

 so then i had a little mini panic because my laptop had a little melt down and decided not to have wifi anymore...just as i was wondering what to do...it started again...happy april fools.. oh and then i got on metro wrong direction but i figured it out with in one stop got out was on other train and lost a total of three minutes... okay this was all before coffee... i was headed for coluseum, because i decided if i saw nothing else in rome, this was the one place i needed to go first... mostly cuz anything big is just impressive.... once out on the surface i found a sweet spot had my first coffee of day at two pm, and a spinach mozzarella pannini, i think the foodies would be a little pleased by this...(so i willl mention food, per request of a friend who likes daydreaming about food from around the world) ( I will also mention bug sightings for another friend- so bare with me or be amused)
i definitely was in the mass that is tourists...waited in healthy line to get Colosseum ticket it cost a whoppen 12 euro but then i realized ticket gets you in to four things- and it seems to be a twenty-four hour ticket so i think i can use it till two tomorrow- not bad..

i took many artsy photos or tried to...as i explored the upper and lower rings of colosseum... shared space with lots o'tourists around the world... i wonder how crowded it gets in summer? there is a stereo type that americans are more ignorant about history than most people, so you will be amused to know that i over heard german guy ask his buddy if the Colosseum was built after Christ... i was tempted to point out to him that they would not have had all the christian fodder for lions had they waited till after Christ... but i am only a smart ass via blog. ... i over heard a guide say that the Colosseum was built by Jewish slaves, those who survived ended up settling in Rome I did not know that ...i also over heard an American youth speculate that the movie Gladiator, was perhaps based on a real event in time... thank gods for Hollywood!

 then walked across the way to the Palentino...which is nice open air sight with what looks like ruins and building from a rather large range of time. mixture of ruins and intact buildings and some good views of the near by hills... again amazing place for photos and sun... the sight also housed a little museum with statuary remains. there are spring water spigots through out the site, and the water tastes sweeter than bottled

 after i tried to amble around aimlessly but found touristy narrow streets opening to things like giant fountains and the Pantheon...clearly though  Rome has figured out how to cater to tourists...mamma mia the crowds in this area!!
 ambled along the Tverere River and eventually found metro home. Had a small dinner of pasta marinara and surprisingly amazing mixed veggies including broiled eggplant and fresh string beans.. then home to room.... dang photo curating takes time but is as addictive to me as games like bejeweled and pixie hollow (this is for the benefit of those who are addicted to those things like myself)

tomorrow check out at eleven so no over sleeping this time!!

seems like every i dont need italian here, everyone seems to speak english, i dont remember that being the case up north...but perhaps a lot has changed in nine years.
 one sweet shop lady was teaching me a bit of italian even... for the most part people are very nice, and for a big city it is very relaxed...even security at big important places like coliseum seem to be hidden if none existent.. metro is not super well labeled, so i get to ask for help...

http://picasaweb.google.com/troellchen66/Rome2?feat=directlink