A Geek in Italy, Part 3 - Rome

This is part 3 of a 5 part series titled A Geek in Italy, written by Adam Wimsatt.
Click here to read Part 1 in this series.

We woke up early on our last day in Tuscany so that we could watch the sun rise over the vineyards. Unfortunately the pictures we took of the sunrise didn’t turn out, but that sight is still vivid in my memory. This day marked the half way point of our two week vacation and we were eager to see what else Italy had in store for us.

The train to Rome was a three hour trip from Montepulciano and the place we were staying in Rome was only three blocks from the train station. The train station was packed full of people. It was somewhat of a shock being in the big city after spending the past week in small towns but we quickly adjusted.

As soon as we found the place we were staying we dropped off our bags and headed straight for the Colusseum and the Roman Forum.

The history is fascinating. Not knowing much about the Roman Forum before getting there, I tried to read every sign I could find. Even then there was just too much history to take in during a single visit. If you ever get a chance to visit I recommend you spend a little time reading about the history of the area before taking the tour.

The Colosseum is eerie, especially when you think of all the death that occurred there. The curators have partially rebuilt the original floor of the main area in the Colosseum so that people could see what it may have looked like. Here’s a picture of that work:

After walking around the ruins for three hours we were tired and ready to get something to eat. We headed out of the Colosseum and found a small bridge that looked like it would be a good place to take a few more pictures. As we were busy posing for pictures on that bridge an expat who had lived in the area for years told us that if we walked up just a little further there was a small park on a hill that was the perfect spot for taking pictures of the Colosseum. She knew what she was talking about. Here is a photo of my wife and I standing in that park:

We also asked the kind expat where the best place to eat was and she told us about this out of the way little pizzeria which was frequented by the locals. My brother-in-law had brought along a GPS so we didn’t have much trouble finding the pizzeria but it was easy to see how the tourists missed it. You could walk right by and never know that there was a pizzeria there. It was such a relief to get away from the crowds—so much so that we ended up eating there for dinner both nights that we were in Rome. Here’s a picture of the doorway:

After we arrived back at our rooms that evening a thunderstorm rolled in. There’s nothing better than going to sleep with the sound of thunder and a soft rain hitting the windows. It was the perfect end to a perfect day of exploring.

The next morning we slept in late. We were all sore from walking the day before and we had planned another full day of hiking the streets of Rome. In the older part of Rome there is something of interest around every corner. We had a small tourist map to go by but even then some of the locations were challenging to find. The relatively new streets weave around the centuries old landmarks.

Our first stop was the Trevi Fountain. The area around the fountain was packed with people and the fountain is huge so you couldn’t capture the entire fountain with a single photo. Instead, I took 18 separate photos of the fountain and stitched them together using Photoshop. Here is the result of that work (click on it to see it full size… this photo is huge):

It was so exciting to see that photo come together. We left the fountain to begin making our way to the Vatican stopping at various landmarks on our way there. It seemed like there were statues on ever corner. Here are a few we found on the bridge on our way to Vatican City:

Vatican City was absolutely packed with people. The line into the city had to have been over a mile long. Instead of taking a tour of the inside, we ended up just relaxing in the main courtyard and took a few pictures of the enormous fountains there.