D5 Prima neve (First snow)

12 /16 Snowy, Rainy, Hailstone, Cats and dogs
Rome

Ancient ruins are basically the same, grass, engraved marble and rugged brick.  You gotta use imagination to portray what Romans used to do: okay, that square holes were toilets for senior statemen, the 3 pillars braced the whole temple in two thousand years ago. That’s the price we have to pay, since we skip the audio guide and decided to guide our own.

…xxx Temple

We needed to finish our Ancient Rome tour today, so that we went to the Roman forum and the Palatine hill this morning. There are many ruins around the forum, including famous temples and city halls back in Roman period. It is amazing that construction last more than two thousand years appear underneath our eyes still.

I don’t know how they preserve those rocks or sculptures, maybe the weather is more stable in Medeterranean region or the German had sign a contract of not-to-destroy-Rome, anyhow, it’s quite impressive to witness the greatness of human culture.

Pictures of ruins

We’re tourists, so we did totally what the tourists do. Taking pictures at almost any sights, stand in the front of spots with meaningless gestures like victory sign, or surf the guide book for further information of rocks by the road.

Tourists triplet

There were 3 girls in a row, one was tour guide for introducing ruins and its history (Pony, lady with purple bag); photographer Catherine, travelled around with her Canon 550D with a giant lens, taking amazing photos. The rest of the girls, Rani, freezing outside, being a model with the same smile in pictures.

Do as the tourists do

The temperature was minus 2 degree and we were freezing outside. I wonder how ancient Romans survived from this kind of weather? They wore scadals, silk clothes with fur or armors, that’s what we seen on TV, but during the freezing winter time, how do they make it to survive? No wonder the average age of Romans were about 35 to 40 years old. Or the world had not been destroyed like today, so that the temperature were still stable and warm in the past.

Basic equippment: Knit hat, scarf, heat preservation underwar, gloves and coat.

It was too cold so that we need to find somewhere with heater to rest. Then walked to the nearby Piazza Venezia, the Venice Plaza. There’s a museum with Italien modern history free to public. We hoped they got heater and toilets.

Flowers with frozen dewdrop

The traffic in Rome is adventurous for pedestrains, especially foreign ones. They’ve got crosswalk on the ground but without any single traffic light. So that if you were trying to go across the road, just went for it and the cars MUST yeild for you in best situation. But sometines there would be a race between cars and people walking on foot, competing who’s the fatest one to pass the road. :/

Roads with cars and motorcycles

I missed my motorcycle in Taiwan, and would Iike to see around Rome by riding one. The best thing about motorcycle are its convenience, easily to park, close to the scene and felt the wind blowing through. It’s dangerous when you kept attention on the scenery beside and didn’t notice the traffic.

Go soilders!

The museum displayed modern history of Italy, but most of the instruction are written in Italien, so that we just took a break and enjoy the heater for a while, then heading for the next spot, the Pantheon.

Pantheon and the fountain

We experienced the first snow at Rome, and it was the first snow in 10 years. No wonder the temperature was soooooo cold. Many tourists were happy because the snow made the city more beautiful. The Pantheon were built in 126 AD, and well-preserved until now. There’s a big hole on the top of the roof and we saw snow flake fell down on the ground, not that many but made the scenery fairily. But to be honest, without an audio guide, that place was like a big tomb and cold inside out, thanks to the hole at the roof.

And our guide book recommend a traditional ice cream shop next to the Pantheon, so we went there to grab some dessert.

Different flavor of ice cream

Even if it’s cold, having ice cream was still a must do in Rome.

Roman soldiers for sale

We went to the Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Navona to finish the day of visiting. We walked through almost the Rome city center in the afternoon, which was exhausted. So that the next destination was hotel for taking a nap.

Flora came to us in the afternoon, and she invited her friend, an Roman local for dinner. Pier is a cool guy, he worked in IBM for 10 years and spoke flent English. Flora met his best friend in Taiwan (who is the ex-boyfriend of one of her friends)

We liked to try some Italien food, since the first time we had pizza was a disaster. They served microwaved pizza for us.

Pier and us

I had the best pasta I ever had in my life, and the pizza were amazingly delicious! Let alone the food, Pier was funny, we talked about mafia, sex attitude in Italy, the discussion was relaxing and easy-going. That was the last night in Rome, we were lucky.