Ciao to Rome!!

Did you know that ciao means hello AND goodbye in Italian?!  Well, it does!  lol.  Diane and I really researched Rome before we got here and were confident in our ability to navigate the city.  We have the Metro down pat, and can easily get from place to place.  We DID have a little bit of a hard time finding the address for our Rome Airbnb, but we made it!  Met our hostess, Daniela and her husband, too.  They gave us the layout of the room we rented and the keys to the house.  Diane and I plotted on what we would do this afternoon, and what we would do tomorrow.  We only had less than 2 hours, as the sun was getting low, and we did not feel comfortable traveling around the city of Rome with just the two of us AND not a good sense of direction and location, yet!

Decided to go see the Spanish Steps (or the Scalina Spagna) and took the Metro to do so. We wanted to get a "feel for the land" so tomorrow we are very productive in all of the traversing we plan to do!  It is reassuring to Diane and me that we see armed forces at every entrance

and exit of the subway.  Anyway, it was a beautiful evening, and we walked (NO!) a lot, again.  In the same plaza and surrounding areas there were many sites to see that were ancient and interesting.  We also saw the Fontana della Barcaccia which is a Baroque fresh water fountain in the shape of a ship and was completed in 1627.  It was packed in the square, with many people sitting around it.

Diane and I have realized that graffiti is an international phenomenon.  We have seen it in almost every country since we first started.  What is it about these stifled artistic abilities of youth that needs to come out, even when the medium and location may not be exactly the correct way to show it?  No other city had as much as we have seen in Rome. Not only was it on the deserted buildings along the railway, but also on the Metro trains as well.

We were pretty excited with what we had accomplished before it got dark tonight, and decided that now it was time to get something to eat, and close to our room for the night.  Our hosts suggested a couple of different places to eat, and we decided on pizza.  We had a great shop less than a block from our place.  We stopped in and ordered two different kinds of pizza.  We chose rosemary potato, and a tomato, basil, mozzarella pie.  Interestingly, they sold it by the WEIGHT!  :)  We also got a bottle of beer to split, because we were hot and tired from roaming around the city.  DELICIOUS pizza, very crispy bottom.  Did you know that pizza was invented in Italy?  Well, it was!!  Good night from Roma!!