We made it to Rome about noon and dropped our bags at the Alessandra Hostel Downtown. Luckily it was near the train station because our feet were killing us. As a response to this soreness we decided to walk all over Rome. We visited the Forum first, it was mostly just a series of small walls. One of the high points of it was a fountain that was in a large room. It had stalactites growing out of it, as I think it utilized a natural outflow of water.
It was extremely hot and I was thirsty but we skipped the water cart because it was a total rip off. I really should have just plunked down the €2 for some water because by the time we got through with the Coliseum I was surely dehydrated.
The Coliseum was nice though because a good deal of it was out of the sun. I recommend doing the forum early in the morning before it gets hot.
We walked back to where we had bought gelatto at lunch time, at a little place a block up the road from the forum (Via Cavour). Their water was much more reasonable, with a huge bottle for €2, instead of the tiny ones at the stands. The stands charge €3.50 for soda!
Also up that same street was a little shop that had t-shirts for €5 and I found one that I liked a lot. The t-shirts at the Coliseum were cool but they cost €23 and I couldn't bring myself to spend that much on a t-shirt.
After this we went back to the hostel and got checked into our rooms, made our beds and took a nap. It was pleasant in our room, dark and a ceiling fan was blowing. After a nap we went to get something to eat. McDonalds was right down the street and V. was so tired of pizza (I don't see how) and so we ate there. By that time I was so hungry I didn't care where we ate. All we'd had all day until five pm was a bowl of cereal at Fabric early that morning and a croissant, and then the gelatto for lunch.
After we finished dinner, we took the metro to the Trevi Fountain and promptly went the wrong way. We wound up down by the metro station we had passed on our way to the Trevi Fountain stop.
V. really had to go to the bathroom and so she went to the bathroom while I waited, looking at the map on one side of the round-a-bout. There was a fountain in the middle. Another American stopped and asked if he could help me find something. I asked him where the Trevi Fountain was and he told me I had gone the wrong way. He told me that the fountain in the square I was at was built in the 19th century, and that the two women who posed as nudes for it, when they were old would sit in a coffee shop on the piazza there and argue with each other about who had been the most beautiful. I suppose that story made it worth getting lost. The American told me that he was a historian and that he had first come to Rome twenty-five years ago and had fallen in love with it. I can see why. It's a great city. I like it much better than Portici and Naples. I like Pompei though, it seems like the modern town is much cleaner and nicer than the rest of the area.
I really like this hostel. After we got back from the Spanish Steps, which is where we went after the Trevi Fountain, we found that the water was only 70 cents in the vending machines here. The showers were nice too. There wasn't a separate area to hang your clothes and get dressed in, but the shower stall was big enough that your clothes didn't get wet if you hung them on the shower caddy they had hanging from a hook in one corner of the stall.
We met a couple from Argentina who were staying in our room with us. The girl told us she thought we were twins at first and had to take a second look. They sounded like they were having a grand time. They were spending a month backpacking through Europe, including Spain, France, the UK, Italy, the Czech Republic and Greece.
Now it is late. I'm going to write some post cards and hit the hay.
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