Day Two: Rome cont'd

If you have figured out by now that I don't know what I am doing, you are a bright thing! Elke, bless her heart tried faithfully to give me a crash course in blogging 101. I retained some of her training, but not all. Just bear with me and I think it's going to all work out. Day two was a continuation of the madness of day one. I wouldn't recommend anyone do what we did with respect to Rome. In fact, now that I've been, I'd say to really enjoy Italy you have to plan on returning. You can't possibly see and do it all, and if you try, you'll rob yourself of enjoying the experience at all. Our first two days were so packed we barely had time to snag a gelato in between destinations. We saw so much in so little a period of time, it's hard to really remember where we had been at all. It was a glorious city though, definitely recommended. If there is something else I might say to the novice tourist, it's this: pay for the guided tours when you visit ruins or other places of historical importance. I naively expected everything to have plaques in English somewhere below the Italian. If you can't read the native language of the places you visit, and you don't take the guided tour in your language, you miss so much of the experience. We did not take the tours and I truly regret that. I planned the whole trip without the assistance of a travel agent, and I did well other than not booking a couple of tours. It would have been money well spent. Every now and then we caught wind of an English tour and it was fascinating to learn the stories behind the various buildings, pieces of art, etc. When we go back, I'll get it right!