Fall Break: Part 1-Ancient Rome

Students and teachers at Kyiv International School enjoyed a week-long fall break from October 19 to October 27,which also included a time change on Saturday night, October 26, adding an extra hour to our time off.

Jay and I choose to spend our "holiday" in Italy, three days in Rome and three days in Sorrento.  The flight from Kiev to Rome was only three hours and it turned out to be quite entertaining.  It seems taking an Italian vacation was a popular idea among lots of Ukrainians, and they were just as happy and excited as we were to get there.  We couldn't remember ever being on a plane where so many people were out of their seats during the flight.  In addition, there must have been several groups travelling together because it was also the noisiest flight we could remember.  The people sitting behind us spent most of the flying time trying to speak Italian and laughing at each other as they translated Russian (or maybe Ukrainian) words and phrases into Italian.  It was like a dual language lesson for us!  Jay and I called it the Ukrainian Party Plane and we clapped right along with the rest of our fellow passengers when we landed at the Leonardo da Vinci Airport on Saturday afternoon.

                             A view from above: Islands off the coast of Croatia in the Adriatic Sea

Rome

We conquered Rome in three days!  However, we weren't sure how much of Rome we would be able to see after finding out that we arrived on Day 2 of several demonstrations taking place around the capital city.  In fact, when we asked a policeman for directions from the train station to our hotel, although patient and helpful,  he told us that if we needed any further help we were to ask other people on the street, NOT the police.  I guess they did not want to be distracted from their anti-riot campaign.

As it turned out, things never did get ugly, at least not where we were.  In fact the only sign of any tension was the constant whirring of the helicopters hovering over us as we spent the rest of Saturday afternoon visiting the remains of the Ancient Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.





 The Roman Forum

The Temple of Romulus

The Rain Nymphs

The Stadium

"A View From The Top" of Palatine Hill

Another shot of the forum

Examples of Roman engineering

Our first glimpse of the Colosseum as we walked through a park coming from our Bed and Breakfast

"Salut!" to our first dinner in Rome with an awesome backdrop

We stayed at a guest house (B&B) called Domus Diana.  This is the courtyard behind the building.

Each room in Domus Diana had an elemental theme: Earth, Fire, Water, Air, etc... We had the water room

Domus Diana from across the street. 

 Our room was the one on the left with the shutters open and the blue (water) drapes.  That's a Trattoria right below us which came alive about 9pm, as did the entire street.  We were serenaded by an accordion player begging diners for tips two out of the three nights. It was like the Italian version of Bourbon Street!

Day 2

Going up the steps inside the Colosseum

Listening to our audio tour

It's crazy to imagine what this was like when it was being used to entertain the Romans!

"The Colosseum Cat" 

We saw him running around earlier, but at the time I took this picture he sat still with his eyes closed for several minutes as if no one was there while lots of people snapped photos.  He's actually a real celebrity; there was a children's book in the gift shop about him!

A street festival on Sunday afternoon.  The banner says "street games"  By this time the demonstrations had ended and life in Rome was back to normal.

Here's the coin we threw into the Trevi Fountain.  I guess we are destined to return to Rome again some day.

Piazza di Spagna - the Spanish Steps

We crossed the Tiber River to find a place called Beer and Fud, a microbrewery and pizzaria recommended by our travel book.  The beer was good, but the homemade potato chips and ketchup were even better!

We watched the old movie "Roman Holiday" a couple of weeks before our visit to Rome, so of course we had to stick our hands in the Bocca della Verita (the mouth of truth).  I'm happy to report that both of us still have two hands.