Invitation To Italy, Vignettes-6

Chapter 16 Roma

Rome … is rich in remnants of its past. The charms are marred by the bustle that characterizes a modern city; by the Roman’s passion for cars; and the pollution and traffic jams that result when the bustle and the passion commingle.

… can’t miss the ostentatious immensity of the marble monument to Victor Emmanuel II, towering off to our right. … It just doesn’t seem to fit the neighborhood, it’s a beautiful building, it just looks out of place.

Via Del Corso … a short stroll to the left or the right brings the traveler to the Pantheon, Fontana di Trevi, Piazza Colonna with the Column of Marcus Aurélius, Piazza di Spagna with the Spanish Steps, … shopping streets galore, and churches and monuments with a frequency found only in Rome.

Chapter 17 More Roma

Sometimes we leave the RV in the campsite and ride the bus … Sometimes we park and explore in more or less one direction as far as our bodies permit, then use a bus or a taxi

Vatican … we climbed the 305 steps of the almost endless, interleaved, precarious one-way staircase, to the lantern at the very tip of St. Peter’s dome. … don’t miss it.

We knew immediately when we had reached the Sistine Chapel — everyone in the room was standing, with eyes turned toward the ceiling.

Chapter 18 Tivoli, to Pescara

Tivoli … water was then directed to the double tunnel … to supply the fountains and miniature waterfalls in the gardens of Villa d’Este. The hundreds of fountains and waterfalls use gravity, natural water pressure — no pumps are involved.

Pescara was locked tight on a Saturday afternoon, except for the several fruit stands that had blocks of ice covered with cooling watermelon. … we enjoyed our share

… in “line” to buy tickets, and what a line it was. Everyone was just jam packed next to each other, jam packed together from “tosies” to “nosies.” … Jim hadn’t been in a line like this since he tried to buy nylon stockings for his sister, near the end of WW II.