[EUROBOUT CONTINENTAL CAROUSEL - 1984] DAY 11

Travel Notes
August 21, 1984 - Day 21
ITALY

Venice - Rome

Yet another long day of driving on the Autostrada/L'Autostrada del Sole - the Highway of the Sun.  It is a mystery how Bart gets by on the first three hours of driving on nothing but coffee mixed with six teaspoons of sugar. To be sure, he makes up for it at the stops : but to start the day on nothing but coffee?

I have become quite comfortable in the two seats behind Bart. People seem to have forgotten about the seat rotation rule, and anyway Earl said it was all right. No one seems to want the seat over the tire at the moment, so it looks like it's my "base camp" from now on.  Besides, I've been bouncing in that seat since Innsbruck!

Earle tells us that we are set up for an illuminations tour of the Eternal City and warned that the hotel we are getting is not known for its haute cuisine. Ma and I have lots of provisions from the London Safeway, so we should be all right.

Rome - Hotel Ergife Palace

Rome : the Eternal City of seven hills.  We have discovered our hotel on the Via Aurelia, four minutes away from the city center.

Just before our illuminations tour, some people mistook our bus for their bus, and when they tried to confirm it with Bart, he would say, "Yes, this is the bus..." and then under his breath "...just not yours."  To us, he did point out that it was true as far as it went, that ours was a bus for an illuminations tour, it just wasn't *their* tour!

Once on our way, the Roman Forum was the first stop.  Rome at night is a whole different city from Rome at daytime, quiet and serene.  the darkness and soft lighting makes a perfect background for musing on the glory that was once imperial Rome.

At the Trevi Fountain one has to throw in the obligatory three coins for luck, love, and a return to Rome.  Fortunately the coins didn't have to be Italian, so all the leftover loose change is gone now! I threw coins twice, just to be sure I'd get back...and someone's lucky coins wound up in a woman's cleavage. A very endowed woman's cleavage, at that!

Then onwards to the Piazza Navona, location of (allegedly) "the best ice cream in the world" and the Fountain of Four Rivers by Bernini.  Upon sampling the goods, I had to admit that Earl is right : Piazza Navona gelato is *good*!!

Much as I love ice cream, I love Bernini and his works with an equal passion: the Fountain of Four Rivers totally awesome in reality, all the major rivers represented.

Moving on, we took a look at  Piazza del Populo and the Victor Emmanuel monument.  Piazza San Pietro embodies the true definition of awesome, especially at night.  It boggles the mind to stand in that empty plaza and look around at the sheer space of it all -- and contrast when it is full to the gills with people.  Our final stop was at the  Temple of the Vestal Virgins and the Colosseum (more properly the Flavian Ampitheatre).  With a little imagination one could hear the chants of the crowd and roars of wild animals.