After a not so fortunate arrival in Rome, we decided to make the best of it. So we bought one of those self-guide books to both save money, and view the historic places at our own pace. Our small group agreed that we hated to be in one of those huge groups of tourist being led by a tour-guide, with a little flag on a large stick, so that people can follow.
No, not for us, rather---we had a book that traced a route for us to follow, giving the name and address of the place, statue, building or whatever---so that as we stood in front of it, we could read its history. This worked out great. It allowed us to linger at a place for however long we wanted, and take as many pictures as we pleased.
So there were walking down the crowded, noisy streets of Rome in the summer, congratulating ourselves on blending in with the locals, not acting touristy. As we approached the Coliseum, we noticed that in Rome, both the pedestrian and automobile traffic was--as best can be described---very chaotic.
People did not follow any specific traffic rule or regulation. This meant that getting from one side of the street to the other ---had to be a carefully executed maneuver, or you could wind up the victim of an accident. As we were discussing this matter among ourselves, how dangerous it was to even attempt to cross the street--we heard a tire screeching and a big thudding sound, people screaming ---and as we looked (in disbelief) we actually saw this very small car fly through the air and land on its roof!
Wow! we just stood there with the crowd, not believing what we just saw. But soon the police was there, and we kept on our walk to the Coliseum. Next thing we know-- one of the women in my group let out a scream--now what?! we ask her. She points to a man that had just walked past her, and says--really angry--that creep just pinched my bottom! We couldn't believe the nerve of the man. and resolved to be more careful.
Finally we made it to the Coliseum and we were truly impressed, what a magnificent structure! Even though it's centuries old, it still has a grandeur that makes modern buildings look puny. We sat down on one of the stone benches to read its history in our book.
When all of a sudden, two large tour buses parked themselves across from us, and it was a sight to see: you had about twenty people, from each bus, run out and we hear the tour-guide tell them that they have exactly ten minutes to take photos of the Coliseum, as they had to be at such and such place, and could not get there late. What followed--to our amusement--was a frenzy of people clicking away as fast as they could, and then just as quickly, getting back int their buses and driving away.
This confirmed to us that we made the right decision in not getting into those kind of tours, and just going at our own pace as we continued our visit in Rome.
