Dream Italia – Rome Continued

September 20-22, 2015

First full day in Rome is a beautiful sunny day with nary a cloud in the sky and temps are to be in the mid 80’s. I saw from the terrace that there were very few people on the Piazza del Popolo, I thought this would be a perfect time to visit and get some photos without scads of tourists in every photo.  It is the one thing I hate about travel photography – I don’t like people in my photos and I have been known to wait, and wait, and wait, with my camera held up to my face waiting to hit the shutter button at that precise moment when everyone is outside the viewfinder.  Of course, tourists will pose a problem all over Italy, oh, wait a minute, I’m one of those tourists! I do try not to linger if I need to get up close for a shot so as to clear the way for that other person trying to get the “just so” shot 🙂

The Kindness of Strangers While in Rome

On two occasions while in Rome, I was on the receiving end of kindness, understanding and compassion from 3 total strangers. 1 who spoke no English and 2 who spoke limited English, one more so than the other.  I was a guest in their country after all and there was no reason for them to speak my language.  And yet, each of them showed me that kindness and compassion can still be found in this oftentimes crazy world that we live in. It was so refreshing to witness first hand and especially in another Country in which I was a guest.

Dream Italia – Rome, Day 1

While Rome was not my first choice of places to visit in Italy, I tended to agree with the sentiment; ‘If you are going to Italy, you should see Rome’. So see Rome I did. Well, some of it anyway. One of the reasons that I wasn’t real interested in the city was I knew that it was going to be very busy, congested, loud, crowded, lots of traffic, did I mention lots of people?!?  I am not a crowd type of person. I don’t have the patience for it. Nor do I like feeling as though I am part of a herd of cattle. I don’t like the ‘every man for himself’ concept of pushing and shoving.  I don’t like the rudeness that it brings out in myself as a result of this. I just plain don’t like crowds.

Dream Italia – The Preparation

I started planning the trip a little over a year before we were to leave. Considering the cost of airfare, it seemed that to only travel to Venice for a week wouldn’t be cost effective. Why not include another stop as well and make it a 2 week trip? But where to go? Of course the Big Three are Rome, Florence and Venice. But I started looking at other locations like Tuscany, the Amalfi Coast, Sicily, Salerno, and The Italian Riviera. Yes, I was all over the map until common sense, logistics and cost won out and it was decided that the Big Three would be the perfect trip. However, I really wasn’t too excited about Rome. It seemed so spread out, so busy, so much traffic, but I would concede to the idea ‘It would be silly to go to Italy and not see Rome.’ I had a feeling that Florence would be more my style but, the real interest for me was Venice.