Final Day and Reflections

Well, it's finally here. The last day of our Honeymoon. Last day in Rome, and last day before we head back home and to reality. I wonder if we just accidentally missed our flight, could we just go backpacking around the world? We could, but I think our fish might not make it to next week. We better go home.

So today, being our last day and all, we decide to take it easy. The only thing on the agenda is to finally go check out old Rome and the Colisseum. After a pizza/lasagne lunch, we take the subway (which is much faster than a bus in traffic), and head to the Colisseum. Expecting to see a huge line, we were surprised that there was no line at all! Tip for tourists: go see the touristy stuff in the later afternoon, around 3pm. Apparently, everyone gets up early to see the attractions so the lines are ridiculous all the way until 2-3pm ish. Good thing we find this good ol nugget at the END of our trip, but oh well.

The Colisseum is actually pretty incredible. It's still smaller than Memorial Stadium, but pretty impressive for having been built almost 2000 yrs ago. I'm trying to imagine the Gladiator movie here, but I end up picturing football instead. I guess the Oregon game has got me a bit nervous.

After a few pictures, we check out the rest of Old Rome and its ruins. What is pretty amazing here is that there are excavations still going on in the ruins, and they are uncovering things all the time. I thought they would have dug up everything by now, but I guess it's hard too since most of downtown Rome sits on pretty much an old city. I'm not if they can, or want to.

I want to walk around more, but Les and I are finally starting to feel the old age and the 13 days of non-stop hiking. Legs are burning, and I think that lasagne for lunch is giving me gas. But we plow forward and see the rest of the ruins, including the racetrack known as Circus Maximus (the one from Ben Hur). We even run a little bit on it for pictures. I feel connected now to the city.

One final dinner now before heading back, and we take a chance on a restaurant called Wanted near the Cavour station. Food has been lackluster so far, but we actually end up with a pretty good dinner to end the whole trip. Nice wine, pizza, spaghetti with meatballs. On the stroll back to our hotel, we stop by to get our last gelato fix: pistacchio and walnut. They love pistacchio here, that's for sure.

So here I am, finally caught up on our Honeymoon Eurotrip blog 2009. I'll recap our trip when we get back to the states tomorrow, but some quick thoughts: Europe is much better than we expected. London was short, but enjoyable; Paris has awesome food; Venice is beautiful and unique; Florence has charm and character; and Rome has the best fountains around.

Les and I had a lot of fun out here, and I think I have enough pictures to help remember it when we get old. But I think the 2 weeks are just about the right amount of time to enjoy the world and get recharged. The funny thing is that vacations usually end up being more than we realize...it puts things into perspective being so far away from everything, so the important things really stand out. For one, I can't wait to see my family and friends again and to share our experiences...for another, sometimes the smallest things aren't worth getting stressed over...there's a brand new world out there to explore. Enjoy your life and appreciate the time and opportunity you have!

We'll see you all when we get back tomorrow!

Signing off from Rome,

David & Leslie
9.24.09