Arrivederci Roma!

Our last day in the eternal city.  Leaving with mixed emotions.  Love the art, don't like walking there, love the oldness, don't like the seediness, love the people, don't like the people.  Rome is such a dichotomy that transcends all emotions.  You can't see this stuff without being here, but being here is difficult.  The streets are dirty, but the museums are pristine.  All in all, an ancient city that will always be with me, but as I sit here listening to the men yell in the streets to each other, another world.

We began late again this morning, ignoring the rule that in order to overcome jet lag you must reset your body clocks.  Our body clocks have won and their answer was, "NO!"  We had two agendas today.  Get cash, and book tickets on the train for Florence tomorrow.  We have a Eurail pass good for France and Italy on 7 travel days.  We can, presumably, jump on any train, at any time in those 2 countries without fare (except what we have paid for already for the pass).  Not so.  The Florence train requires a reservation, which requires going to the train station and paying more money for a ticket.  We did that without incident and will jump on the 12:55 fast train (really fast) for Florence, Italy tomorrow.  We hung around the station so Jerry could get accilamated for tomorrow, and had a gourmet meal of 2 hot dogs and a diet coke.

After the station our other task was money.  As I said yesterday, our cash card was not always working at the hundreds of Bancomats in Rome.  I am sure that it is the fault of the Italian Banking System not our local bank, but until we got a reserve store of cash, (and enough to pay for our next apartment in Florence) Jerry was not resting.  Our first try was a success!  Hooray.  Onward and upward!

So now it is 2:00 and we havent done anything. Since our meto/bus passes have been used up (3 dys for E16.50 each) we decide to walk to anything we want to see today.  We went to the Rome National Museum which was a little gem right close to our hotel.  Rick Steves said it was the best collection of ancient Roman artifacts in the world.  So this was an easy walk, and E10 each we were in.  this was the least crowded, and cleanest place we have been.  Nice place.  Here are some of the photos we took.

Rome National Museum --  Minerva

Roman guys....hey, one looks like Jerry!

Mosaic rescued from an ancient home.

Partial Roman Calendar that was displayed in the marketplace

Hey, it's spring here.  These are oranges.

Jerry consulting with Caesar

Dying woman after being shot in the back.

beautiful man

back of beautiful man

Diana

Venus

Jerry giving the discus thrower some track tips

Digionese-- old face

Digionese-- young face, always questioned everything.  They are on the same statue

The hermaphrodite.  We didn't show the other side.

Sarcophagus.  Look at the carvings

Close up of one figure on the Sarcophagus

Beautiful frescos rescued from a Roman Villa c. 200 BC.
Just like wallpaper, but 2000 years old

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Also, the largest and most extensive coin collecion in Europe.
Ancient Rome to modern times

Vault protecting the coins.  Fort Knox

Scales to weigh the coins

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Following this we went to Santa Maria della Vittoria Cathedral

Bernini's statue of the swooning St. Teresa in Ecstacy.  Amazing!

Santa Maria della Vittoria Cathedral

Santa Maria della Vittoria Cathedral

Right next door was the Santa Maria degli  Angeli which is built on the ancient Roman Baths and designed by Michelangeo.

Santa Maria degli  Angeli which is built on the ancient Roman Baths
and designed by Michelangeo.

Santa Maria degli  Angeli designed by Michelangeo.

The interior Roman sundial and calendar

Oh yeah, and I fell again on the sidewalk but didn't have any injury.  The curse of Roman sidewalks and old eyes and feet.

Today was 64 degrees, so we were enjoying the warm Roman weather.  Jerry had a short sleeved shirt on and I a light jacket.  There were locals in EARMUFFS!  Boy what would they do in Iowa.

Ate a Donner, came back and drank wine in the hotel.  Leave tomorrow for sunny (I hope) Tuscanny. If we don't post tomorrow we will on Monday.  Ciao!