Planes, Trains, etc. ~ Part Four

Miscellaneous photos snapped in the ancient ruins of Rome. The second pic is the area where Caesar's body was cremated. It has been roofed for protection from the elements, and people often leave flowers there.


The third pic is the plaque outside the area where he was cremated. Unfortunately, they didn't also hang a plaque in English. If you know Italian, maybe you can interpret it for us.


In the fourth pic, note the broken marble pieces laying about. They are prevalent in that area, and although they keep the paths fairly clear, you do have to watch where you are walking.

Laura asked some questions in her comment to yesterday's post. First: Was I in a tour? No, I went with mr. kenju and miss kenju (our daughter), who planned the whole trip. She has been there before, so she knew just what to do and where to go. I highly recommend that you travel with someone who is a whiz at the subway systems and train stations (staziones). She can go all over Rome and Paris in the subways and also knows how to travel easily by train in most of Europe. We were very fortunate to have her plan the trip and take us there!


Second question: What would I do differently? I would limit any trip to just one or two countries at a time. We went to three, and it was a little too much travel for 8 days. We went to Rome, Florence, Zurich, Paris and Versailles. All of them were wonderful, and it would be hard to choose a favorite city, but it was too much in a short period of time for me to be able to digest all sights and keep them separate. Of course, I will be reliving that trip in my mind (and on the blog) for weeks to come, so it will all sort itself out in time, I am sure.

If I had it to do over: I would travel in Italy exclusively; Rome, Florence, Venice, Pisa, and several other areas I cannot remember right now without looking at a map. We flew over Pisa on the way to Rome (through Paris) and we saw the leaning tower of Pisa. I would love to see it from the ground too. I would go to Tuscany and stay in a villa beside the Meditteranean Sea. I would climb Mts. Vesuvius and Stromboli. I would cruise the canals in Venice and I would eat gelato all over the country and get fat and be perfectly happy!

I have never been a huge fan of Italian food in the US, but I can tell you that I have been persuaded to change my mind about Italian food in Italy. It bears faint relation to the stuff served here. There are little to no preservatives in the food; so I, usually challenged by IBS and milk allergies, was able to eat absolutely everything there without a problem. It seemed a miracle that I could eat cheeses, butter, ice cream and sinfully rich pastries and suffer no consequences, but I did. The only problem occurred because they apparently don't know about decaf coffee. I, who have been essentially decaffeinated for 25 years or more, drank their regular and very strong coffee everyday. On returning home and going back to decaf, I couldn't stay awake for more than 2 hours at a time, and I developed caffeine-withdrawal headaches. My solution was to drink some regular Coke, which perked me up very quickly, but I do need to taper off caffeine as soon as possible. That was the only downside to the trip.