Rome

We walked a lot today.

In the morning we got up and returned the car. We walked by a cafe called Alex Cafe because we had read that they had a gluten free menu and we saw that they were not open until 12- 12:30 so we went to see the Colesseo.

We quickly found a tour guy and paid 20 euros each to get in and get the tour. The was a very interesting tour and is best left to the tour guides. The things that we found really interesting were:

• over 700,000 people where killed in this statium.
  
• The building had been striped of most of the metal in the rock which allowed the earthquake to make the south wall collapse. People had actually chiseled into the columns to steal metal from it.
  
• At the time that the collisuem was built the people were bribed to come watch the games.
  
• The Roman Senators had their names chiseled in their seats thus begining the phrase "I don't see your name on that seat"
  

We later took a tour of rome at night and got a lot of walking in.

This was a fairly uneventfull day. We drove to the outlet store from Naples and bought some Guess stuff for Jenn.

When we got lunch Bryan ordered a pizza and unknowingly ordered a Napoli pizza which was anchovies. The entire pizza tasted like nasty fish. When we went to pay for it we had an interesting time trying to explain what had been ordered an no one would take our money. It was eventually worked out.

We went to a couple of supermarkets and made our own dinner and went to sleep.

The next day we looked up were the AVIS was and headed out with luggage and full backpack in towe. Unfortunately, Bryan had read google maps incorrectly and got off a metro stop to soon but we did not realize it soon enough. We wondered around Spagna lost and found a place the they sold maps to figure out the route needed. In the heat we climed all b'zillion steps of the "Spanish Steps" with our heavy luggage and after a mile or so of walking and serveral wrong turns we made it to avis. After about 45 minitues and some talking we had our Fiat Panda and GPS and we were on our way to Pompeii.

Bryan could not figure out what the speed limit was but thought he remembered that the limit was 130 and everyone else seemed to be going 150-200 so it was probably safe. The GPS was originally set to go to our hotel in Naples but we changed it to go directly to Pompeii and the GPS did not register it correctly. This meant that it turned us back toward Rome. We got off the toll road and corrected the GPS and headed back toward Pompeii. It was a fairly easy drive, however Bryan missed cruise control.

We drove into Pompeii and found parking right in front of one of the Pompeii enterance. There was a pizzaria there and we stopped to have lunch. The calzone that Bryan had was simple but tasty. We paid for our ticket and went into the park. We remembered that we wanted a map and asked to buy one. They said that they only sold them on the streets. The problem is that they have a strict policy the once you exit you cannot enter again. So we proceeded sanza mapa.

We took some pictures and saw a couple climbing a wall who told us that it was worth climbing...so we did and we saw

The rest was very interesting and we took lots of pictures. It was amazing that they mountain was fairly far away and yet caused so much damage.

After we were drained from walking around in the hot sun we returned to our hotel. We checked in a recieved a key with a stereo head jack on it. It was explained that we plug in the jack to turn on the lights!

We asked to eat and was told that they restaurant was not open until 7:30pm. So we went to look for food in Naples. What an adventure was to follow. We quickly learned why Naples was the worst city to drive in. First of all the guys on moped and motorcycles do not fallow any of the rules. For example, if a light was red it did not apply to them. If there was room on the sidewalk there was room for them. If there was just enough room to squeeze by you the would. We are not talking about a foot extra in room between the car and the bike but actually a centimeter between the bike and the car. Jenn and I set out to find a car that did not have a dent or scratch on it. We were able to find less than we could count on our hands and we saw a lot of cars.

We arrived at the restaurant were we found that it too was closed until 7:30pm. We decided to make the adventure back to the hotel. Bryan began to try and drived like them squeezing every ounce of free space out of the unlaned roads. We joked about it being amazing that none of the bikers had gotten hurt when we came across a bike that had taken a fall several minitue before and the people were directing traffic around it. It was the most remarkable driving experience of out lives...just insane!

We went to eat at the restaurant and overheard a group taking about celiacs sitting near by. We later asked them about it and they said that they were a group from Baltimore that took gluten free trips. They were about to start a gluten free Cruise and just happened to be staying there. What a coincidence!

After the uncomfortable 8.5 hour plane ride, we got off the plane and got our passports stamped. Then we preceded to get euros out of the ATM. We were relying on this to get the money that we needed to pay for out rental apartment. Unfortunately, the ATM only allowed us to get 250 Euro out of it, and the other ATM's were out of cash. We started look for a phone in English to call the person that was renting us the apartment. We were then approached by a guy offering us a "shuttle" to our apartment. I explained that we needed to call the person at the apartment to make sure they could meet us. He dialed the number and gave his phone to me. As I was talking to the apartment owner, the Guardia di Finanza approached us and asked if the man next to us offered us a "taxi". They explained that only approved drivers were allowed to provide transportation from the airport.

The police took us back into the airport and had us sign a form stating that we had been offered a "shuttle" ride. While we were waiting for the officer to make a copy, "Shuttle" Guy and another officer put on a show for us. "Shuttle" Guy is yelling in Italian that he did nothing wrong and was swinging his arms all over the place. The police were just as loud and animated. It was quite the first experience of the country.

We did finally find our way out of the airport without further incident. The first train that we got on did not have any seats left so we went down to the train on the end and found seats but without AC and roasted. We noticed through the window that the romans love to express them selfs by painting wall murals of their names (aka graffiti). Bryan tried desperately to get his SIM card to function properly to alert the owner that we would be delayed (only later to find out the he had to dial *126* before the number)

When we arrived at our apartment on Via de Flaminio, the person that we were renting the apartment from made us a cappuccino and showed us around. The apartment is very nice and we have some pictures. Just think IKEA and you can picture what it looks like. Flausta said she is particularly proud of the oven/stove/dishwasher combo (which we admit is pretty impressive). There are 5 channels of Fox television in English that play about a thousand different reruns from any of the American networks. There's even a show called "Sexy Camera 2" which is kind of like candid camera with strippers, except it was all in Italian.

After we settled in we went to the market and bought some fruit and grabbed lunch. Our waiter's English was just passable. Also, the Italians seem to think that any meal should last all day. There is no sense of "get in and get out." If you want something, you have to get their attention and get it because they don't come over very frequently.

We went to Piazza del Popolo and saw that there was some kind of Anniversary of the Poliza going on. We decided the Lamborghini was our official Polizia vehicle.

As were a walking through this area some guy (we'll call him Flowers) approaches Jenn with a rose and tells her to take it. She refused, and Flowers says "No, no, it is free." Eventually, she takes the flower just to shut Flowers up. A minute later, Flowers comes running down the street after Bryan to say "Just a little" as he gestures with his hand for money. I say, "You can have the flower back-she does not need it" and he takes it back dejectedly. We later observe what we can only assume to be Flower's extended relatives do the same thing to other unsuspecting couples.

We visited the Statue of Immaculate Conception, which essentially a giant penis with a statue on top. The irony was not lost on us. Apparently, the pope is lifted by a crane on December 8th every year to change out the flowers. Instead of pope on a rope you have pope on a crane.

We wandered to the Spanish steps area

and had dinner at a place that Jenn researched. We had a fun time trying to get the gluten-free point across (thank goodness we had a GF card printed out in Italian).

On the way back, we stopped by a gelateria to get some gelato. Jenn asked for chocolate in a cup, which should have been GF as ordered. Out comes the waiter with two biscotti decoratively sticking out of the gelato. We try to explain that Jenn is allergic to the biscotti because it is the simplest way to explain it. We were not getting through to the guy, so some Italian guy behinds us yells "allergia" and the waiter suddenly gets it. We were thinking, "How can you not understand "allergy" but you get it when someone adds an "a" to it?" Sadly, the same thing happened at the next gelateria.

We decided to turn in after that since we knew that we were going to rent the car in the morning to go to Pompeii and Napoli.