Archeological antics and translational troubles

This morning we got a bit of a late start, but once we got going, we walked from one side of this city to another, quite literally.

First we walked away from the historic center to find a store to buy food for a picnic. We found a fruit stand, and a store that sold bread and cheese. Initially we were frightened by the prices, then we realized that everything is sold per kilogram, even bread. Our estimation skills were put to the test, guessing bread weights in the metric system, but eventually we gave up and decided to go for it. Picking out the bread and fruit was easy enough, using pointing, numbers of fingers, and grunts of affirmation. However, Andy insisted on getting a local recommendation for cheese. After 5 minutes of wild arm gestures and speaking Italian through "guess and check" we had the storekeep thoroughly confused. Fortunately, Andy made a sweeping gesture towards the cheeses, and the shopkeep cut off a chunk of the random cheese he thought Andy pointed to. It was an excellent cheese, Andy has good taste. From there we continued to the nearest metro.

We next went to the Colosseum, but were intimidated by the line, so we took off away from the ancient ruins and grunted and gestured (amid cries of "fontana") our way to one of the many public fountains that ran drinkable water into the streets 24 hours a day. We washed the fruit and found the nearest green area on the map. We enjoyed our wonderful cheese in a park overlooking the Colosseum (although we found out from Massimo later that after dark our tranquil park became the red-light district). Then we took a long walking tour around the oldest of the old ruins (from back in the days of the Etruscans prior to 500 BC). We also saw the Roman forum, the senate, the triumphant arch, and the rest of downtown ancient Rome. It all really came together, however, from the top of the Palatine hill. This was the location of the emperor's palace (and is, in fact, the origin of the word "palace"). From there we could see the entire layout, including the path victorious armies would march to receive their laurels (or bay leaves, they are one and the same). On our way out, Andy tried to start a friendly conversation with a bunch of bitter and sun-weary archeology students, but was shot down in every language he tried.

After our sweeping tour, Tina decided to go native by taking a siesta between a few phone calls, while Andy and I did the manly thing by visiting the Colosseum. We walked around, said "cool", and sat down to plan out the day. As we were preparing to leave, an english speaking tour group swarmed our seat and the guide started telling his group (and us, via proximity) what we had just seen. This was much more interesting than our guesses and we decided to follow the group back to Palatine hill and see what else we could learn. It turned out that we had only seen half the hill before, and had missed Domitian's palace, which was basically half of the hill and included it's own private stadium. It was opulence to an incredible degree. Our British tour guide was great and told us fascinating tidbits, such as how Romans washed their clothes in urine.

From there we climbed the Capitoline hill, designed by Michaelangelo, then we started walking to the Trevi fountain. It was big and I remembered it well from Mr. Freeman's trip. I also remembered that it was close to an amazing gelato place. After we met with Andy's friends later that evening, we went for an ice cream snack. Tonight we are exhausted from a day of city walking and hill climbing, and I am going to sleep well soon!