Day 6 - from Siena to Roma

16,486 steps, 6.76 miles, 21 floors

Today is the day we head to Rome...

A view from outside the Colisseum, late afternoon. 

We woke up and went to the bus station, but there was no bus for an hour (it's a Sunday in Italy), so we hoofed it to the train station. I may not have mentioned that with our 45-lb backpacks we now try to book a place to stay right by the station. But in Siena, we walked about 1.5 miles with some serious "weight belts" added. After many switchbacks and a few escalators, we were in a food court right above the station...with 30 minutes to spare before the 9am train to Salerno. 

Really? Typical Italian is hot dogs and burgers?

We skip the typical food and go for a croissant. It's really hard to find a breakfast in Italy that isn't a Danish and a cappuccino, but you know: When in Rome. Heh heh. So after whining to each other about how we both want a ham and cheese croissant, we see that the guy just takes a regular croissant and injects it with marmalade or chocolate. So I guess outside of McDonald's, most places can't "inject" ham in liquid form. So we'll stick with the sweet stuff. We board our train for Rome and head out. 

The train is the fullest we've seen in a while, and we've learned that most people don't sit in assigned seats, so rather than booting the people in our seats we just go to the next cabin (this is the first train we've seen with 6-person cabins). Sure enough, an old lady comes up and stands by me and keeps saying seat numbers and pointing. I wait for her to tell us to move, but she doesn't. She just talks for a while and moves on. Italians seem to like passive-aggressive confrontations: They say their opinion of you to someone else right next to you. So it's good to just ignore people here.  

We get in and we're at the other Rome station, so we have to take the subway to our place. We find it without too much trouble, but it's a funny pad. It's a Chinese family and they rent out a room or two, but live in the apartment. So while we were in Rome, our apartment felt like living in mainland China...but with 4x the square footage. Let's chat a bit more about this guesthouse:

- the bathroom window opens to the kitchen

- there's a randomly-placed wooden box above the toilet (you'll notice a gash on my forehead in the next week's worth of pictures. Said box is the culprit)

- the shower is a claw foot tub with a sprayer. They don't have a curtain so the floor gets soaked. Yet they have a lady who seems to just stand there waiting to mop at all times. So rather than buy a curtain or something, she just mops within seconds of leaving the bathroom

- the shower lost pressure when someone turned on the kitchen sink

- oh...we share the bathroom with several others

- there's a sign that says "attention passengers, please use towel clean under toilet no wet for person safety" or something to that effect...which I think meant to towel off the floor after you shower. 

- the kitchen is usually in use in the evening and the entire place smells like asian seafood dinner 

- the bed seems to be a cheap box spring 

...but the thing is, we had a safe, clean place to sleep within a mile of the Colisseum. So we head out. 

In front of the Roman Forum, Sunday evening. Our last photo before I lost a battle with the Chinese bathroom. In real life we were in color. This is just a camera trick. Since these columns are 2000 years old I thought B&W would make it look more like the 1950's, which is kind of like the time of Ancient Rome. 

We needed to chill for a bit first, but then went out for a late lunch before we hit the Colisseum. There was no shortage of wine bars, and we managed to eat some healthy food for a change. Veggies, avocado, etc...instead of the usual starch and cheese. Then we headed to the Colisseum to find it was closed for the day at 4pm. We decided we'd see it tomorrow, and walked around the Roman Forum. We walked through what remains (virtually nothing) of Circus Maximus, which held 200,000 spectators in its prime, and then we saw one impressive structure after another. The sun was coming down, so we just wandered and looked at the magnificent, overpowering structures as far as the eye can see. Apparently a census at the peak of the empire counted 1 million free men...so if you count women and slaves, the estimate is about 2.5 million living in Rome. I had forgotten how awe-inspiring this city is, and we're glad we have the entire day tomorrow to explore Rome. 

These are the "less famous" structures near the Colisseum and the forum. 

I really loved this building...it looked like 2 stories of Colisseum, with two stories of old English style on top. I believe it was a theatre but can't remember now. 

The other side of the Forum at dusk...this pic (and most in Rome) doesn't have a filter...even though it probably looks like it does. 

We slowly make our way down the maze of italian streets, looking for a great tapas place I read about. We make a stop for a snack and then trod on. When we find the place, it is overflowing with people, but in a seemingly trendy neighborhood. We go across the street for a glass of wine and some weird artisan italian food, including artichoke flan and whatever I ate. We decide to walk home and then get hungry again. We stop in what looks like a tourist trap and share some ravioli, and try the "spritz" that so many people drink around here:

This DayQuil-looking drink is champagne, club soda, and some liquer I'm told is "Apple" but I do question. It's sweet but might be really good in the summer. 

We head home and call it a night. We decide on no alarms, and when we wake up, we'll head to the Colisseum again.