12 Planes, 12 Trains, 6 Rooms, Taxi's on strike, metros, & Buses

We are home! While it is always nice to get back, we really hated to leave Italy, what a wonderful place and wonderful people.

Our day in Roma was just great and while too short it certainly was rewarding. Sammy and I toured the Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano, commonly called Saint Peter's Basilica. From there it was the metro to the Colosseum where we met Franco our English speaking tour guide. He was great we learned more about the Colosseum in 1.5 hours than a whole semester at school. We then walked through the Forum and on to the Pantheon, and several Piazza's. We bid farwell to our new friend and then just did some strolling.

We were waiting to head up to a restaurant my friend Josh Wagner told me we HAD to go to, Abruzzi's just about two blocks from Trevi Fountain when all of a sudden we turned the corner and saw Taxi's parked everywhere, they were blocking all the streets, around the Vittorio Emanuelle II monument just north of the Forum. I found a taxi driver and asked him what was going on and he told me it was a taxi strike and this was every taxi in Roma.

Off to the fountain with a stop at the Basilica of the 12 Apostle's. When we got to the fountain we played the kissing game. This is a game where you find and count all the people kissing, holding, loving, giggling, and kissing and let me tell you there are plenty at Trevi Fountain in a country that already has record number of people kissing each other.

At dinner time we eat which might be the most amazingly good meal I have ever had, it sure was at the top of the list for this trip.

So what did we NOT like. Exactly two things. Dog poop on the sidewalks, and the Rome Metro closes down at 9:00 PM. Now the metro thing is something you can plan for when you know that upfront, but really, in a city where the restaurants don't even open until 7:00 PM and eating is a national event, to close the metro down at 9:00 PM is a bit on the silly side of things.

You've got 2 be kidding me: Between the three of us we had 12 plane segments, 12 train seats, 6 sleeping rooms and numerous buses, taxi's and metro rides and it was not until the last leg from Newark to Cleveland was anything late. Go figure!

Arrivederci Italy!