One Night In Rome

The end of a very long two days.

Rome, 1960 Olympics

The buildings that were the center of the 1960 Olympics in Rome.

Rome, Circus Maximus

The Circus Maximus where two hundred thousand Romans would gather to watch chariot races and other sporting events. The old palace in the background is up on the Palatine Hill so the rulers and their guests could watch from the luxury of their own balconies.

Rome, Hercules Olivarius

The Temple of Hercules is the only surviving sacred structure in ancient Rome that was made of Greek marble. Most of the rest were destroyed or stripped for parts over time. It was built in the later 2nd century BC. So, ya know it's something like 2,000 years old. Hard to wrap your mind around that.

Rome, Altare della Patria

Little rest for the weary, after a few hours to settle into the hotel the tour group went on our first excursion, which was a bus tour of Rome. It included a lot of the city, and some important sites which I won't post now because we will visit them in depth on later days. But here are some of the highlights.

This is the Altare della Patria, called the Wedding Cake locally. It's a monument built in honor of Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy and is generally disliked because the Romans think it's too gaudy.

Plug And Play

This is also where we got introduced to another European difference; you have to put your hotel key card into this slot in your room to turn the power on. When you leave and pull the card all the lights and plugs go out. This held true to all the rooms we stayed in. Once you got used to it, we thought it was actually a pretty clever way to save electricity.

Piaggio Parking

With a fairly large collection of scooters, most of them classic Vespas of course.