Europe Trip: Day 24, June 13th

Since it was Saturday, Francesca didn't have to get up early to go to work, which also meant that I was not going to be going into Rome with her this time. So after sleeping in a bit and getting ready, she took me to a nearby stand where I bought a 3 day ticket. Then she showed me where the bus stop was and explained everything that I needed to know.

I bought a big 1.5 liter bottle of water -- for under 50 eurocents! Compared to the water I had been buying in downtown Rome for at least 1-1.50 euro for only 0.5 liters. Then I had to run to catch the bus before it left, and I was off. The bus went to Ananigna metro station, which I took to San Giovanni in Laterno.

First I visited the church, which I enjoyed more than San Pietro. It was on a similar scale, one of the giant churches of Rome, but it didn't have the throngs of noisy tourists. The church also contained some very neat statues portraying many saints -- to be fair so did San Pietro. I had bad timing, though, and just missed the time when I could enter the Baptissery (or whatever you call it), as well as missing the entry time for San Clemente.

So instead I headed for the Coliseum, which was a 15 minute walk away. At the end of the street I was walking on, Via San Giovanni in Laterno, there were these rainbow flags and some other rainbow stuff, so I thought to myself...is that what I think it is? I went over and straightened one of the flags and sure enough it said something about Italian Gay Pride -- this would prove important a couple times later in the day.

As I walked around the Coliseum a couple people asked me in English if I wanted to go on a tour -- no lines! At first I rejected it out of hand, but finally I gave one of them the chance when they said it was only 20 euros, with 12 euros being the entrance price. I decided that would be better than walking around by myself with no explanations.

The guide was Italian, had quite the sense of humor, and liked to pick on various members of the tour -- I was one of his favorites to try and make look like an idiot. I talked with a German guy, an Irish family, and a French guy -- the funny thing was that the French guy spoke much clearer English than the Irish family. As far as French people go he spoke the best English I have heard, after the tour was over I talked with him for quite a while, nice guy.

After the Coliseum the tour guides switched and a Kiwi (New Zealander) gave a tour of the Roman Forum. Mostly the walk was through the imperial palace area that began with Caesar Augustus, overlooking the Fori below.

My original plan had been to walk over to Piazza Venezia and after looking around take a bus back to the metro at San Giovanni. But it turns out that those rainbow flags had been for something sooner than I had expected -- I came out of the Roman Forum to find a gay pride parade in full swing. The French guy and I watched that for a while, it was quite entertaining. I took a couple minutes of video. But they were walking right towards Piazza Venezia and with all the roads being closed I knew I had no chance of finding the bus. So I ended up having to walk all the way back.

When I got back I picked up a 6 pack of those giant waters, hoping to give a bit back by sharing the water. Also I bought a giant Fanta to have with dinner one of the nights -- sadly when I offered it the next day they didn't want any.

Anyway, Lubna had been invited to a friend's place for dinner and said that I could come along. We went and they were very nice. Ironically, both of her friends were doing Graduate work on the Byzantine Empire, one of my main interests historically! They were shocked when I brought that up as a main reason for my itinerary (Rome and Istanbul) and told me that was their interest as well. We had a good time and a couple bottles of wine before heading back.