Today we leave the beautiful city of Venice. It has been the most wonderful experience and one that is worth repeating.
We travel out of the city and head for Rome. I think most people feel the same as us. In other words knackered, as before long the bus is pretty quiet.
We only journey for about 1 1/2 hours and we make a stop at the Rubicon river where we learn the story of Julius Caesar returning to Rome as a hero but the Senate ask him not to bring his army across the Rubicon with him as they fear he will rise up against them with his army. He ponders this for awhile before deciding to bring them across the river but leaves them outside of the city. This displeases the Senate and Julius is killed. So it is said in folklore if you make a big life changing decision, there is no changing it and you are said to have crossed the Rubicon River.
We continued on towards Rome stopping at Assisi, where St. Francis was born in 1182.
We grabbed a quick bite - Pizza of course - and headed up into the village to see the world-famous basilica with its beautiful frescoes by Giotto. There were lots of tourists but also many pilgrims who were there solely for the religious aspect. We came across one dressed in monk attire sitting below the church in the crypt reading passages from the bible. You have to remain silent throughout the whole church as a mark of respect and again to prevent any damage to the frescoes, no photos were allowed inside.
We kept traveling towards Rome and arrived right on peak hour traffic. If we thought Auckland was bad this was something else. They are positively mad. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to lanes or rules. And as for the parking, it is where ever there is a gap, sideways, diagonally or double parked.
We booked for one of the tours tonight which involved a brief look at some of the well known sights before a traditional Italian 4 course meal whilst being serenaded by a guitarist and flautist. The Trevi Fountain was our first stop. I had expected a fountain that was shooting water up into the air, but this was water cascading down a beautiful sculpture and steps. They say if you throw a coin into the fountain it means you will return. I hope so.
From there it was to the Spanish steps for a brief photo stop before we needed to get back to the bus for our meal.
While we were walking around we were approached by many hawkers, all of whom are illegal unless they are working from a permanent stand. These were not and whilst they are breaking the law if the police see them, they run off, but it is you who will be questioned by the police. We had one such chap approach us with roses. We said no, but he said they are free. Nothing is free and we were to find out as when he insisted we took them, he then followed us asking for money, so we handed them back much to his disgust.
From there we were taken to the restaurant. We were treated to a beautiful 4 course meal. The singing was fabulous and of course at the end we were expected to pay tips. I guess well deserved but so different to how things are done in Kiwi land.
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