aqua fortis

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Italy, Week One: Rome and Naples

Roman ForumSo I've been terrible about blogging about this trip. I know it. But even with excellent internet access here in Rome (hooray for hotel wi-fi!), I end up so tired at the end of the day that I only have energy to check e-mail, make sure nothing has exploded and keep my inbox under control before collapsing into bed.

Why so tired, you ask? I guess we're the types of travelers who have to try to use as much of the day as possible in seeing and experiencing as much as we can, since who knows when or if we might return. In practical terms, this means getting up as early as 5:45 a.m. (though usually around 6:30 a.m.) and returning to the room about nine in the evening after dinner, completely spent after walking for something like ten hours.

Store for ecclesiastical garmentsBut oh, the sights we've seen already--some of them shockingly empty of people since it's kind of supposed to be the rainy season. The only truly tourist-crowded places we've been to were the Trevi Fountain (just a quick cruise by to say we'd seen it) and the Spanish Steps (ditto). Even the biggies like the Forum and Colosseum weren't too bad. Of course, that day we got rained on three separate times, which may have been a factor in the lack of crowds. But we came prepared with umbrellas and raincoats, so mere water falling from the sky was not a deterrent. Plus, even when it rained pretty good, it was nothing compared to when we got caught in the daily monsoon while visiting the pyramids of Teotihuacan outside Mexico City, or the time we went on a rainforest hike on Hawaii's Big Island and it rained so much that the soap started bubbling out of our clothes.Marco 'n' Me

I don't think anything I can say can really do Rome justice in such a small space (and with me having so little energy) but I do love traveling to big cities, I love Roman ruins and beautiful artwork, and so far this trip has all of that. Plus REALLY tired, aching feet.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

So how long did it take your bodies to switch to European time?

tanita✿davis said...

Hee! It absolutely poured on us in Italy this summer... but I've gotta say we never stayed out long enough for the soap to bubble out of our clothes. THAT would have been weird. (And would have made me question how well the washer rinses.)

Are you tired of pizza yet? I never thought it would be possible, but I haven't had a pizza for MONTHS now.

Sarah Stevenson said...

S: It took surprisingly little time to switch, because we made a point of trying to arrive with most of a day left over and forcing ourselves to stay awake and active until the evening hours. :) It worked pretty well.

T: Fortunately, the rain hasn't been TOO bad--in fact, we've been really lucky, I think, that it hasn't rained on us more. And no, not tired of pizza yet--that's pretty hard to do for me. I'm feeling a little carbo-loaded in general, though! We've been eating a lot of other types of pasta, too, and had quite possibly the world's best roast lamb (though I realize that you care about that NOT AT ALL). :)

Anonymous said...

I think you're doing right doing lots of enjoying and less blogging for a bit. I always have these grand ideas about blogging while I'm traveling, but usually I wind up like you, exhausted and falling into bed at the end of the day. Sometimes it's like that when I'm home.

David T. Macknet said...

Yeah, the thing is, you're down in the south, so you've got decent food. Let's not even talk about the hideous Austrian food that lives up north. Bleh!

Sarah Stevenson said...

Should I even ask what Austrian food consists of?