Today, we hit a smorgasbord of Roman sights. We started off with Gelato. (Which I think is just Ice Cream in Italian,
but Tenille thinks there’s a difference between Gelato and ice cream. ) We then walked to various plazas which are
just open areas, usually adorned with an obelisk or statue. We saw the Trevi Fountain which was enormous!
Much larger than I thought, and there
was so much water gushing out of it. We
then made it up to the Spanish Steps and walked around super name brand stores
like Gucci, Prada, Christian Dior, etc.
We ate lunch at one of the many Italian restaurants in the area. Tenille had a pasta in cream sauce, and I
had fettuccine in a red meat sauce. Surprisingly, Tenille really enjoyed it,
despite her luke-warmness to pasta.
Hopefully, this will mean more pasta nights at the Hyun home. We took a subway to the Colosseum and met up
with our tour group. I was mildly
disappointed with our tour guide. At the
beginning, she invited us to ask questions.
When I started asking, she told me that she’ll tell me all of those
things later. Eventually, I stopped
asking questions.
We went through the Forum which are ruins from ancient Rome
thousands of years ago. There were ruins
of temples, senate chambers, etc. One
particular ruin of interest was the Temple of Vestia. This is where the term Vestial Virgins came
from. There was a flame kept alive
constantly in Rome by 30 virgins. These
ladies typically came from high society and it was quite an honor to be a
guardian of the flame. However, if they
broke their vow of chastity, they would be buried alive. After 30 years of service, they can choose to
get married if they chose.
We also saw Capitolino Hill which is where we get the word
Capitol from. We also saw Palatino Hill,
which is where we get the word Palace from.
This Is where the Roman Emperors had their palace. As we were leaving the Palatino Hill area,
Tenille had to use the restroom badly.
We were warned that Rome was not a public toilet friendly place. After walking half a mile, we finally found a
public restroom in a secluded area of the Forum. After she was done, she came strutting out
and gave a big, audible sigh. She
exclaimed to me, “ahhh, I’m a new woman!”
To her horror, there was another
man standing not more than 15
feet in front of her.
He obviously heard her declaration of relief because he quickly turned
around and started chuckling to himself.
Embarrassed, we quickly left the area.
Before heading home, we visited San Pietro in Vincoli, which
is a churched that houses what are believed to be the chains that held St.
Peter. Legend has it, that there was
another chain that held Peter in Africa.
An angel came down and miraculously unbound him from these chains and
helped him escape. These chains were
given as a gift to the church. Legend
has it, that when these chains were put together with the chains that held St.
Peter in Rome, they were miraculously linked together the next morning.
On the way home, the weather had turned afoul on us, and we
could hear thunder roaring overhead. It
was nice, because the weather turned very cool.
However, we were still more than a mile from home, and ominous clouds
overtook us quickly. We tried to find a
bus station, but didn’t know which bus to take back to our hotel. We ended up walking back, despite our whining
feet, and ate dinner at a mediocre, but expensive restaurant.
Hyun Family 