"All roads lead to Rome...Don't they?"

The skies were still cloudy the morning we left Siena. We met with our new travel friends from Parksville (Bill and Maureen) around 9am and were on the road shortly thereafter. Steve took up the co-pilot seat and Maureen and I sat at the table in the RV. Turns out that the road signs in Italy can be a little deceiving. To leave Siena we followed signs that pointed to Florence/Rome. But some time later there were no more signs with Rome on them- only Florence...hmmm...Maureen and I sat quietly while the men figured things out on the map...turns out we had gone on the right highway but in the wrong direction...There weren’t any “exit to Rome”, or “this way to Rome” signs...Maureen said ”Well, all roads lead to Rome...don’t they?” We all had a good laugh- and its true as we were soon on the right road to Rome. The RV ride was fun, it was nice to chat with other english speaking nice Canadians! We took a stretch at a roadside rest stop and Maureen spread out food for some nice sandwiches and wine. It also rained most of the drive and at some points it was down pouring- so it was a good day to be in transit. I don’t know if I could ever rent an RV in Europe- we still think Bill and Maureen are very adventurous and brave! We hope your travels were wonderful! We arrived to the campground just before 4pm, we said our goodbyes and Steve and I took the train into the city. We had a map from the campground and had no troubles finding our hotel. Our room was spacious and we were upgraded to have our own bathroom- yay! My favorite feature in the room would have to be the art over the bed. You know how every hotel has cheap art above the bed? This was a religious scene (of course) of a famous work in the sistine chapel. What I liked was the fact that it was actually a puzzle glued on a board and then saran wrapped! Hahaha- it made me laugh...

With so much to see in Rome, where do you begin?! Steve and I bought a guide book to  Rome that had daily itineraries mapped out. With this book and our guide book pages we made a list of all the places and monuments we wanted to visit. The list was long. 

The guide book also gave us advice and rules for crossing the streets in Rome which turned out to be a daunting if not life risking task. I’ll give you the lowdown: 

Step 1: Know that pedestrians do have the right of way. This will not be obvious. If you stand at a crossing cars will NOT stop- you must step out onto the road.

Step 2: Step onto the road when you think the speeding cars will have enough time to brake for you. 

Step 3: Once crossing, do NOT stop. There is no room for hesitation and you must go. Cars time their driving around you- especially the scooters- so even though they are slowing down, they will drive around you if possible.

Step 4: Look confident and pretend you know what your doing. 

It took us a few days to get used to this...but once we got the hang of it we were golden!  We would approach cross walks where tourists who didn’t know the rules yet would be waiting. So, we would get to the front of the crowd and walk out into zooming traffic, and sorta like how Moses parted the sea, we parted the traffic and the people could cross. 

Rome is big. There are only two metro lines...which took over 20 years to build because there are many ruins in the ground beneath the city, and below the ruins are water springs for Rome. We occasionally used the buses to get to other areas of the city, but lets just say there was a whole lot of exercise done everyday. Which was good because there was a whole lot of carb eating going on too! I read somewhere that Italians stay true to the ingredients- they don’t try to jazz them up and make them what they aren’t (the writer explained that this is what the French tend to do). I agree with this writer- the food was simple but good- pizza has one or two toppings, pasta sauce has one or two veggies or meat added, but they do work some magic with eggplant and definitely make it taste better than I have ever had! I had eggplant lasagna and it was delicious! I find it hard to name more than three dishes you could consider as “traditional Canadian food” (I can think of Nanimo bars...and poutine...or a caesar! Mmmm...I would love a caesar right now...no spice...hahahha) but food in Canada is highly varied and you can get pretty much anything! I’ve really noticed this...in Italy you eat Italian food. The restaurants all seem to have very similar Italian dishes. Thats it. There are other types of food available- but definitely not abundant or easy to find! We saw some Kebab joints...and a pub that made burgers- but other than that, you can expect pasta and pizza. And other than McDonalds and a place called Autogrill on the side of highways and in airports, there don’t appear to be chain restaurants around. Coffee and a pastry at breakfast and perhaps a sandwich or panini at lunch. My family always made bacon spaghetti- forget beef- and that is what they do in italy! There was always bacon spaghetti on the menu! I had to try it out- could mine be as good as the true pasta masters??! I tried it more than once of course...the first time was the best one- and was only a little better than mine :) But they added something to the tomato sauce ( I suspect it was cream) and it took the acidic edge off and it was soooooo goooood! But the part I didn’t like was the flavor of the bacon itself! This is common here for me, the way the meat is flavored or smoked isn’t...well...good ol Canadian!

As for the sites in Rome...amazing! We saw everything on our list and others as well. The day we went to St.Peters also happened to be public mass with the Pope- an unexpected surprise! St. Peters was incredible and the vatican museum/sistine chapel were great! I loved the colosseum and all the plaza’s and fountains all around the city. Another highlight would be the crypt in one church decorated with the bones of over 4000 monks! Creeeeepy!