Roma: Spanish Steps, Piazza Novona, Piazza del Popolo

Grace and I decided to take a break from each other today. I needed it. I wanted to spend the day by myself, do my own thing, go where I want to when I want to how I want to and for whatever reason I want to, and that's exactly what I did.

I know. I'm selfish.

I ended up going to one of the main shopping districts in Roma, looking for some capris. No luck though, as I didn't find any that fit me properly (what's new..). I did, however, much to my joy and pleasure find a few UCB stores that kept me busy for a few hours....

Spanish Steps:















At around 8pm, Grace and I met up and took the #46 bus to Piazza Novona, where we found ourselves a nice place to eat dinner. The place we found today was good, but not as good as yesterdays'. After dinner, we went for a walk, and we ended up at Piazza del Popolo where we enjoyed a nice view of Roma by night.

Piazza del Popolo:















Night view of Basilica di San Pietro (St. Peter's Basilica) from Piazza del Popolo:















But then things turned ugly. Unbeknown to us, there was a taxi strike in the city. We walked around looking for a taxi for quite a while and just could not find one. The transit system also shuts down early in Rome, so only night buses were going, and they don't come as frequently as the day buses.

Finally we boarded a bus bound towards Valle Aurelia. But after about 20 minutes on the bus we got worried because we weren't coming across any recognizable city landmarks. Hmmmm .. what to do. We got off the bus, and began walking, eventually arriving at .. believe it or not .. the Vatican!

Here again, the Vatican at night: this time, from up close!















But as exciting as our discovery was, let truth be told, we were not in a good mood. We'd boarded the bus based on Grace's whim that "it was going in the right direction", and we exited it based on my determination not to ask the bus driver for directions back to our hotel. I may be a tourist in the city, but I'm not a dumb tourist in the city.

I know. I'm stubborn.

For the next hour, Grace and I had it out. We discussed, argued, even got a bit angry. She was hurt: I'd disregarded her feelings. I was pissed off: why did we enter that bus??? We were both tired. It was hot even at midnight. I was annoyed. We had a long day ahead tomorrow and wanted to get to bed. She was annoyed. We argued some more. I said sorry. She forgave. But I was still pissed. And so the story goes.

Finally, we saw a police car to one side of the Vatican. We approached it, and asked for advice. The kind response from a policewoman was basically something like "you're a 1 hour hike away from the Domus Aurelia". She empathized, but said she couldn't help us except give us the directions to walk home.

And walk home we did. Most of the way home was uphill. We got home close to 2:30am. Nice. So much for a good night's rest.

By the end of our walk, however, we'd managed to reconcile somewhat. Somehow, the pilgrimage home (it seems appropriate to call it a pilgrimage) calmed us down. By the end we even joked and laughed about it.

Lesson learned: make sure mode of transportation is sorted out when away from home. Translation: we should've known the damn taxis were on strike.

All in all, a brilliant first full day in Roma.