We first arrived in Rome, staying right near the Colisseum. We spent a couple days making the rounds of the standard historical ruins, and then tried to escape this unbelievable tourist trap as soon as possible.
It still is a really striking thing, the scale and grandeur of this ancient civilization - that had concrete and plumbing 1000 years or so before we re-discovered both. My favorite building was the Pantheon, a massive domed structure that really gave you and idea about the beauty of their structures.
My cousin Jessica is currently going to school in Rome, and any further reference to our distaste of American students excludes her - as she is neither a Valley Girl, pretentious, or unintelligent.
If we could only explain to you the mounting frustration that occurred during this trip - it felt like we were hanging out at some high school with the unbelievable massive number of American students (no seriously, you can't imagine how many). We lost count of the number of dinners that were interrupted by loud explanations of "totally like great skirt, like".
So.....off to some peace and quiet in Cinque Tera!
I am officially the laughing stock of my office after being handed a EU50 ticket for running a red light on my bicycle. Apparently it's a "do as they say, not as they do" sort of thing - I pretty much have learned to copy the Dutch on my ride to work. So - looking both ways carefully and then crossing is not okay, you have to ride like a car....Learn something new every day.
I did not want to leave this place - despite being packed with proportionally more tourist than even Rome, it was absolutely beautiful and you still managed to feel like you had some personal quiet time. The locals were great, with one laughing as he watched me wander from restaurant to restaurant before asking if I needed a room...
Nadirah managed to put away enough seafood to keep her going for at least a couple months - and the days were filled with hiking, sunning, and swimming. My kind of vacation. The 5 towns lining the coast each had their own personality, I think we got lucky and stayed in one of the best in Vernazza.
It still is a really striking thing, the scale and grandeur of this ancient civilization - that had concrete and plumbing 1000 years or so before we re-discovered both. My favorite building was the Pantheon, a massive domed structure that really gave you and idea about the beauty of their structures.