Rome for the First Time

I had the opportunity to visit Rome, even though it was only for a day, with my friend, and I jumped at the chance. I had only been in Italy about 4 months and this was my first real trip. We got to the DaVinci Airport in Fuimicino, took the train to Rome and arrived at the Roma Termini Station and began the long walk down Via Giovanni Giolitti about a mile to Viale Manzoni until we got to our little place, Hotel Luzzatti. It was a lot further than we had realized from the map. We'll know better next time we plan a trip.

We began our walk that ended up being about a mile and a half down Via
 Labicana. You never forget the first time you walk about the corner and see the hint of the top of the ruins of the Colosseum.  1900 years ago this was being built. It's hard to imagine.

We went inside and walked around... weird feeling being in the place that you know someone once walked almost two thousand years ago.

We left the Colosseum and headed over to the Forum and into the ruins of Palatine Hill.

 Left the Forum and headed up the ramp into the back corner of the Piazza del Campidoglio.

Headed down the stairs to the the Via del Teatro di Marcello and made it to the front of the Monument dedicated to the memory of unified Italy's first King.

A quick stop at the Trevi Fountain.. It was raining too hard to get a good picture, but we tried. Needless to say, the rain forced me to purchase a new hat to keep the rain out of my eyes. I found this fancy black one that is reminiscent of a chauffeur's hat at a street vendor for 6 Euros. What a deal!

Made some time for lunch and it finally stopped raining! Made it back towards the colosseum and stopped to view the ruins of Trajan's Market.

We started walking toward the Tiber and got to Piazza Argentina. There is a lower cropping of ruins there that is called the Area Sacra. There are four temples there that date back to about 400 bce.

From there to the Pantheon.

Piazza Navona

Castel Sant'Angelo

Vatican City

And that was it for the trip. Back on the ferry and home. What a wonderful first time in Rome.

Santa Teresa di Gallura

Santa Teresa di Gallura is on the Northern tip of Sardinia on the the Straits of Bonifacio facing the French island of Corsica. It's about a 20 minute drive from our house.

(Some scenes from James Bond -The Spy Who Loved Me were filmed here.)

It's also the site of the ancient city of Tibula from the year 168.

We were about to climb those stairs back there to get to Longosardo Tower.. Built in the 16th century.

Notice Terry's wet leg-- yeah, he fell in the water..

La Maddalena

Guardare l'Alba

Guardare l'Alba

Watching the Dawn

I was up early today.. close to 4:30 am. I stood on the balcony and watched the city street lights fade away into the early morning start of yellow, gold, and pink. The following were taken over the time period of about 2 hours.