water, water, everywhere....

There are, of course, beautiful fountains in Rome...but there are some that are pretty funny too ... one of our favorites is the kind where you hold your finger over the bottom of the spout, and the water squirts out the top so that you can drink...you can also get soaking wet that way !  That type is called the "naso", or nose ...because it resembles... well....a nose !

Ciao, Chris and her "maybe I'm not thirsty after all" husband

the lion with water shooting out it's mouth...

a scary guy with water shooting out his mouth...

oh no, not the pigeons !!

yes, the pigeons...

another scary guy at the "naso"...yes, he was a bit wet after this...so were several other people !

life among the ruins...call em as you see em (column, get it ??)

Yes, we're getting down to the wire now, and a bit punchy !  We walked around the Colosseum and the Forum today (and just a few churches along the way...)

...It was 68 degrees and sunny when we sat down in a little outdoor cafe for lunch at 2pm.  Ten minutes later it was pouring !  Luckily, we were under a canopy and stayed dry.  The Italians at the table next to us said to order more wine and wait it out...which we gladly did.  As these things go, we struck up a conversation with them...part in Italian and part in English...and by the time the sun reappeared, we were exchanging e-mails and phone numbers !  The sky was beautiful, blue and cloudless, and we had made new Italian friends...

A bit of gelato as we meandered home and it was pretty much a perfect day...

Hugs, Chris and her "I've got nowhere to go and I'm in no hurry to get there" husband

 Pics from the Colosseum and the
Roman Forum...too many to put them all on here !!

is that a loose rock ? Joe Fix ??

Julius Caesar...

where's the fiddle, Nero ??

Marc Antony ??

Cleopatra ??

...wandering amid the landmarks...

It's not easy keeping up with all the famous landmarks here...they're everywhere !
Yesterday, we saw, among other things, the monument to Victor Emmanuel, Italy's first king...the 43 ft. long statue of the king on a horse is the biggest equestrian statue in the world.  The monument itself is known locally as "the wedding cake", "the typewriter", and "the dentures"...what a sense of humor !

We also passed the ancient theater, and the "turtle" fountain, a lovely, playful  sculpture enriched in later years by Bernini...his gift to the Jewish people of the area whom he admired.  He adorned the fountain with turtles because they are the symbol of an ancient creature that carries all its belongings on its back. (another sense of humor...)

Hugs, Chris and her "ha, ha...very funny" husband

is it a wedding cake ?

is it a typewriter, or dentures ?

is it the biggest horse in the world ?

the ancient theater...

oh, those cute turtles !

...only a few more churches, I promise !

Right around the corner from our apartment is the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, one of the oldest churches in Rome, built on the site of a home where early Christians worshipped illegally until the year 312.  It was made into a basilica in the 4th century when Christianity was legalized.

The medieval mosaics date from the 8th century, and scholars say that this is the first mosaic to show Mary at the throne with Jesus in heaven. (I'm no scholar, but I read it on the internet, so it must be true...)

It's a beautiful church, and open from 7am until 10pm every day...how nice !

 We left there to go shopping for burger night (got to have our fix...), and a man in the supermarket asked me, in Italian, for 20 cents...he was pitiful, and I still had some "church money" left, so I gave it to him.  He came up to me a bit later and gave me 13 cents in change, because the beer he wanted was less than he thought !!  You can't make this stuff up....

Hugs, Chris and her "I can't believe you gave that guy money, but everyone needs a beer sometimes" husband

...The land of the Ape, the Vespa, and the Fiat 500...

   These three vehicles tell the story of Italian transportation over the last half century more than any other.  After WWII, Italy was war-ravaged and poor, and in the late 1940s the Piaggio company created the Vespa (wasp), as a means of cheap transportation.  Shortly after, they created the Ape (bee, pronounced ah-pay), which was not much more than a three-wheeled Vespa with a cab and two wheels in the back.  These two vehicles put Italy on the road, enabled workers to get to jobs, and allowed farmers to take produce to market.  They are both still widely used today, and just like wasps and bees, they can be heard long before they are seen.

   In the late 1950s, as Italy began to industrialize and workers needed more mobility, Fiat introduced the 500 as a replacement for the Topolino.  They made hundreds of thousands of "cinquecentos" through 1975, and they were the perfect vehicle for young Italian families.  Many people who bought them in the 1960s are still driving them today.

   Here are photos of these three vehicles we've seen in our travels...

   Joe, and his "not another car picture" wife...