Rome, plain and simple

We went to Rome with very low expectations (we weren't on an organized tour that takes you to see all the major sights for a marathon tourist day).  Instead, we braved the train (which was fantastic once we figured out the platforms and destinations) and made it into Rome in just over an hour.  

Our first impression of Rome was, well, not as you'd see it on tv or the movies.  It was (is) dirty.  Dirty, dirty, dirty.  And graffiti EVERYWHERE.  They really need to take spray paint off the shelves here.  It's not the type of graffiti that we saw in London (which has a lot, but done in more controlled areas it seems, and some is very impressive to see), Rome's 'artists' scrawl huge tags and dirty words all over the place.  If something stays still long enough, it gets marked.  That and the garbage in the city -- just general crap sitting around, glasses, cans, papers...it's not pretty.  To sum it up, it seems like they only care about the old ruins (wait, the ones they can charge money for -- some of the freebie ruins are all marked up) and even then, we heard from our dinner partners that people have scratched and carved their names into the Colosseum, and littered in the Sistine Chapel (yes, they should be going to hell...LOL).  

Since we wandered on our own and got off at the Rome Termini (main train terminal) we got the special treat of walking through a little shady area until we found one of the 'freebie' ruins (an old ampitheatre) and grabbed lunch at a little cafe next to it (pictures below!).  Next we checked Trevor's phone (it has GPS on it) and saw that we were 5 minutes walking distance from the Colloseum, so we headed there.  And we saw it.  It looked nice, we took a few pictures of the outside and walked through a park and just watched people come and go. 

(Oh, and just as a side...I got 'hit on' in Rome.  LOL!  Skeevy guy, right in front of Trevor.  I thought it was hilarious.  If you've got boobs and legs here they will eye you up.)

We had some paranoia about the ship leaving without us so we hopped back on the train around 3pm to make it back into Civitiavecchia with enough time (that's where we were in port).  

Looking back at Rome now and thinking of how dirty and littered it was makes me laugh, because the day after that (yesterday) we were in Naples...and wow...it makes Rome look like you could eat off the streets.  More to come on that!

Bakery/market.  I liked the flowers outside.

Bruschetta.  Mmmm.

Trevor's first espresso.  He liked it.

You are looking at a photo of THE BEST tiramisu ever. EVER.  And I mean that.

The colosseum.  Yup, that's it.

A street in Rome.  Crazy parking.