Buon Ano! Happy New Year from Roma!

Our new year has come and gone. We have walked so many kilometers today - and every day, but today was more than any other day. Everyone elses's feet are killing them, but not I!! I am wearing Drew "Sophia" boots, thank you Ron-Dad!! He gave me the money to buy these for my birthday and I have broken them in nicely since September, and I can just go and go and go! France 5 years ago was a nightmare...I was wearing Rockports, but they just are not as good. By day 2 and 20 minutes it seemed like a living hell. So, Drew "Sophia" http://www.onlineshoes.com/productpage.asp?type=style&styleid=12&stylecatid=369&gen=w&pcid=35833

This is a picture tonight of the tree at the top of Pincio (The Pincian Hill). It is part of the Borghese Gardens, raised up above Piazza del Popolo, near the Spanish Steps. From here there are spectacular vistas of St. Peter's and the Victor Emanuel monument. Visit the following page to see all the things you can see from this hilltop: http://tesoridiroma.altervista.org/galleria/dalpincio/dalpincio.html

It was quite a walk up to this point. We crossed the Piazza del Popolo http://www.romeartlover.it/Vasi21.htm which was rather nerve wracking since so many people are out and blowing things up. The pedestrians took over the streets and cars didn't stand a chance of getting anywhere. We all had "umbrelli umbrelli" (umbrellas) since the rain came and went, downpour, and then stop. I had picked up a pink umbrella with a duck head handle in Florence, Steve got one today for 5 E. So up and down they went, all night. We had a nice dinner at a place we made reservations at this morning...if we had not, we would have stood in the rain for hours to have dinner. We had gelato again on the way to the park.


The view from Pincio is amazing...but was soon clouded by smoke. We could easily see the Vatican from here (our first sighting) but after midnight the smoke obscured everything. Our friends popped champagne, and we toasted the new year and hugs all around. After about 20 minutes of fireworks (all of the plazas all over the city had fireworks, so there were many explosions to look at) we parted, and we trekked about 30 minutes back to our hotel, among the hordes of people going every which way. Loud explosions happened all around. There were still cafes open, and gelato if you wanted it (but we were full).

Steve is icing his knee, and I decided to post to everyone who might be checking to see how our evening went.

Time for bed! The plan for tomorrow is to see the Coloseum, and other ruins.

Ciao bella!!

Wendy