Friday, September 2, 2011

Europe 2002 Trip Reports Part 9 Rome & Area Day 3

This is the 9th of a series of posts recalling my trip to Europe, using e-mails sent at the time. Unlike later trips, I didn’t e-mail people everyday. Trip reports are largely as I wrote them at the time with two exceptions: 1. I was usually pretty rushed due to Internet fees in Europe, so I’ve cleaned up my e-mails to make them more coherent, which wasn’t a priority at the time. Also, in some blog posts I’ll add additional thoughts with the hindsight of nine years later or to add further clarification. I’ll use “NOW” in such cases.
This 9th report covered Rome & Area day 3 (Rome itself, Ostica Antica, a beach just outside of Rome, and Vatican City).
I went to Ostia Antica to explore the ruins; it was closed due to a local holiday so went to a beach area instead.
[NOW: If memory services, I took the Rome subway system to a spot where I transferred to an out of town train. I don’t think you get there from the main train station, but I could be misremembering. Apparently the Rome subway system has run into problems because they keep on encountering archaeological sites as they dig then tunnels. However, beyond the traffic issues, Rome is very easy to navigate by foot.]
Not much room due to neighbouring pay beaches but it was relaxing. Made a lengthy attempt to find a toilet near the beach.
[NOW: Not that it’s that important really, but I don’t recall the outcome of this.]
I went back to Vatican City after buying enough groceries for lunch and maybe dinner. Turns out that there was some confusion before, tourists can’t actually visit the streets of the Vatican but can explore areas inside starting from St. Peters. This ended my plans to walk from one end of the country to the other but I had a backup plan: did a complete circuit on foot around the country instead. Will return to Ostia Antica tomorrow and then hopefully I'm off to Venice come evening.
[NOW: Just to make sure this is clear, Vatican City, while inside Rome, is considered a separate country.]

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