Ciao

Today, Ted and I flew from Geneva to Rome and checked into our hotel in the mid-afternoon. We immediately went back outside to do some sightseeing. As soon as we walked out of the hotel, we thought, “We’re in Italy!” because it definitely looked Italian.

Our hotel was about a five-minute walk from the Spanish Steps, so we headed in that direction. Of course, we climbed the 132 steps to the top. The steps are grouped in 12s to represent the Apostles, but that would only be 11 x 12. Does Judas not count? Do the groups of 12 represent how many Apostles there were, but one set is left out because Judas betrayed Christ? Or doesn’t the grouping mean anything? I don’t know; we just enjoyed the experience and the view.

A view of the steps to be climbed. We went all the way up to behind the obelisk at the church doorway. No problem.
A view of the crowd from the top of the steps.
There is a fountain at the bottom of the steps. Of course it has spouts on each end to fill water bottles.
The Spanish Steps are pretty at night, too–and it’s less crowded.

The Trevi Fountain was only another half-mile, so we continued onward. We thought the Spanish Steps had a large crowd, but we hadn’t seen anything until we got to the Trevi Fountain. We had to wiggle and squeeze our way to (near) the front to see the water in the fountain and to take some pictures.

We saw a lot of good-looking gelato as we walked around and had to buy some. It’s Italian gelato–a must-have in Italy.

There were a lot of military camo jeep-type vehicles as well as military and local police with assault rifles everywhere we went. I asked about it and was told it’s just the kind of post-9/11 security that’s now needed wherever large crowds gather.

This does not compute for me. A woman holding an assault rifle while she laughs and makes small talk with a bystander.

We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant recommended by the hotel concierge and then walked around some more. We sat in the plaza at the Quirinale (police station/jail) and just people-watched for awhile in the warm night air before going back to our hotel.