Our travel woes continued as the van we had hired to take us to the Bologna train station was a mid-sized SUV. It was a miracle that the driver was able to fit everything into the car but we had to sit three in the backseat and we each had something on our lap. That is why we ordered a van. I was able to confirm that a real van would be waiting for us in Rome. We got to the AirBnb by 2:30 without any trouble with transportation. We dropped off all our stuff, took a breather and then headed off to the store. The was just 5 minutes away. We bought stuff for a picnic dinner and then headed out for what we thought would be a "walk in the park." That walk in the park never materialized as we had a large wall blocking our way into the park. So we trudged along in the hot sun. We walked along the wall, past the zoo and finally after a half hour of walking we could get into the park. We ate our dinner and then walked over to the Villa Borghese where we were to meet out tour. We looked all around for a public restroom but there was none to be found, plus the museum was closed on Mondays. Eventually the tour guide, Sam, showed up and said the would stop at a bar so everyone could go. We were first to the golf cart and had a good 10 minutes with him alone. He told us to sit up front so we could hear him better. This was a great tip, as a father and son team of Swedes sat in the very back and missed a bit. We passed monuments, statues, the supreme court building, castles, piazzas, palazzos, fountains, churches, Vatican City and oddly enough Egyptian obelisks. Sam told us that the Romans liked to collect souvenirs. They liked to collect gods from the civilizations they encountered. After Egypt was made a Roman province the cult of Isis flourished all over Rome. The Romans felt that more gods smiling on the city was good for Rome. They also liked to collect different animals. It did not turn out so good for the animals as they has to fight to the death in the Colosseum. They collected governments, first they adopted the idea of a Republic from the Greeks and then the God-Emperor from the Egyptians. Lastly they liked obelisks and pyramids. Rome has the most obelisks of any city in the world. The brought eight over from Egypt and also manufactured five more here in Italy. The Italian ones have botched hieroglyphics on them, perhaps an inside joke by the Egyptian stone workers
From our spacious van
Out neighborhood is chic
The front desk bell
Goodbye spacious van
Into out spacious rooms
Right next to the Embassy of Morocco
On our walk to the golf cart tour
Some different things along the way
Belgian Embassy
One person is always clapping off of the beat
Wisteria vines give us just a smidge of shade
We are passing he zoo
The arboretum
Nice entrance
Dragons and wild birds
We stopped for our picnic dinner and saw what looked lime a big bird house in the center of this building
Scary beasties
The gates to the zoo
The palace / museum where were to meet our tour
Sam our golf cart driver and tour guide
The memorial to the unknown soldier
Chock full of statues
Lovely architecture
The car from A Roman Holiday
Right off the bat some very old buildings
Sunk down below the ground level of the modern
Rome is a busy city
Sam talked at length about these obelisks
Real of knock off?
930 churches are found it the city
Also a city of many uniforms
At the top of the Spanish steps
We did not climb them at the tour was still in full swing
There was no shortage of folks
A city of domes
Fountains are found all over the city, over 2000 in total and the water is cool and sweet to drink
Luckily we do not have to use a bucket
The tomb of the unknown soldier also housed a memorial to Victor Emanual II, the king who unified Rome
A huge Italian flag
Teddy?
Another obelisk at the twin churches
The lion spit is drinkable
Gothic style, oh and Rome has the most churches of any city in the world
This building would fit in nicely in Florence
Part of the walls of the Vatican
Rome still has many of the old walls
St Peters Basilica
Archangels
140 saints and martyrs on the top
St Angelo's castle or the memorial to Hadrian
A painter in the Piazza of Navona
These fountains are freshly cleaned for the Jubilee
A dove on top of their oblisk
The Pantheon, worship was open to all gods
Another oblisk
Some Italian high fashion
Nice skinny building
Apparently Bernini wads a prolific architect and was responsible for the design of many of the classic budlings and monuments
Another fun fact, if you do not know the name of a church, chances it it the Santa Maria
Sam and I
The Colosseum
Much bigger than we expected
The Arch of Constantine with the colosseum to the right
Loving the golf cart tour
TeamLeip is in the city
The magic hour lighting
An aqueduct that sent water to the colosseum
The palatine hills
Site of ultimate frisbee games today
A great skyline
Is this statue chewing tobacco?
Up in a grove of trees
Getting the best sunset over Rome views
A great burst of yellow light
A Romanesque church
St Peters Basilica in the distance
At the end we bribed Sam to take us back to our place. He dropped us of pretty close
It has been 2 years and 354 days since we began our Migration
