Kleins in Italy

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “She’s using marathon as some kind of analogy to talk about all the places they visited with their tour guide today,” and you’d be right. But you’d also be wrong because today was most definitely the Rome Marathon, complete with barricades around the Colosseum, (and indeed all over the city) lots of annoying, inept city employees with bad information and even worse tempers. And then you’d think, “Oh no, they didn’t get to see anything”, and you’d be wrong again, because of Kate. Kate the intrepid. Kate the undeterred. Kate the “shut your mouth you silly empire-building know-nothing low-level city employee!” And in the end, for all his bluster this guy couldn’t hold a (Roman?) candle to Kate what with all that righteous indignation burning and those paper tickets waving and guide badge flashing. Oh, you betcha. Marathon or no marathon, we saw the Colosseum!

And what a sight it was. Of course, the pictures don’t do it justice, but in my opinion it does live up to all the hype and despite the difficulty at the entrance (or more probably because of it) we nearly had the place to ourselves. After a few wonderful hours at the Colosseum we wandered over to take in the Forum. From Palatine Hill we had sweeping views of the entire complex below us while Kate kept up a steady stream of ancient Roman history for us to absorb. From there, Kate had arranged for us to meet up with a driver who took us to see the beautiful Appian Way. Originally built in 312BC to supply Rome’s burgeoning military, it’s now open mainly to local foot and bicycle traffic. We strolled a little way, admiring the carpet of spring wildflowers and charming road side restaurants.

Back with the driver, we were quickly able to see a few more points of interest as we headed back into the city, notably a pretty spot overlooking the Tiber River and St. Peter’s Basilica where we’ll be touring tomorrow.

Hot and tired from our long morning of touring, we said goodbye to Kate and got some lunch before heading back to the hotel for a much-needed nap. We enjoyed a lovely dinner at Osteria Coppelle back in the same neighborhood where we ate last evening. The eggplant in marinara and pizza with squash blossoms, ricotta and anchovies where the stand out dishes of the evening.

As we retire this evening, a quick check of David’s all knowing Apple Watch let us know that although we may not have run the Rome marathon today, we did manage to get in a 10K!