L is for: Large Monuments and the Lavanderia!

Italians have a knack for “Go big or go home”. I have the same philosophy for travel. Let’s set out on another day of exploring as we toodle about the city of Rome….

I was up super early as I had one singular goal to accomplish this day… (aside from the pre-planned sight-seeing we had on our dance card)- buy a SIM card. We were both more than fed up with not having a way to navigate in real time and it needed to stop THAT day! The problem all along had been that, unlike here in N. America where you can buy them every few dozen feet, there just aren’t cell phone stores on every corner or places to buy SIM cards. What I found was that typically they were only found near train stations, in airports, or other high tourist areas. And had I to do it all over again, Anara and I would NEVER have left Venice or Bari without one in place. One of the things, in fact, that we’ve agreed to for our trip to Australia is that the minute we arrive we figure out our cell and data plan. I will say, now that I have the iPhone 15, it came WITH an eSIM and I can have it activated a bit more easily and I will spend some time trying to even get that set up before I travel at all. It may even work for my time in the Philippines and Bali too. I also use T-Mobile and have an International Data Plan that has unlimited data, unlimited texts, and calls anywhere in the world for $.25/min. For calls I just use WhatsApp if needed.

Nevertheless, I did NOT have one when I set out so hoped that a long walk might prove useful in finding one.

I did not.

But I did see a few things I’d wanted to, so I guess there’s that.

My route took me once again through the Campo di Fiori where the flower, produce, and other sellers were already set up for the morning market and I enjoyed a short glance as I went.

There’s always time for pastries and lattes in the morning!

I continued on and found myself at the Largo di Torre Argentina which is the site of 4 clustered ancient temples. I didn’t spend too much time researching the stories or information on them, but it was worth a quick breeze by, nonetheless. To be honest, I was a bit more curious to see if I’d run into any fun photo opps of the local kitty population that calls this area home. I didn’t but still was glad I’d put it onto my route.

Further on, I found myself at the Pantheon, perhaps the more familiar of the landmarks I visited this morning. However, this provided a bit of frustration. Remember those CityPasses? I showed them what I had and was told that the document I had wasn’t what they needed. Great. Was I scammed? $100 down the toilet? Ah well, I didn’t have time on this short foray out, so snapped a few photos and kept on truckin’.

Walk, walk… walk… walk, walk….

“Excuse me, do you know where I can find a SIM card shop? Cell phones? Hello? Anyone?”

“Oh just over there, go over 3 blocks, down one, turn right, blah, blah…”

I did find one shop, and they weren’t open on Sundays.

Perfect.

Dejected, I turned towards “home” to collect my sleepy girl so we could head out to do some much needed “housekeeping”- laundry.

Yay.

By now she’d “recovered” and had learned a very important Travel Lesson. There are many, like (#1) Never Ever Pass Up an Opportunity to Doo Business, and (#2) Never Ever Wear Cute, But Completely Impractical, Shoes When a Lot of Walking Is Planned! I’m sure she had the Millennial Mindset thing going, Instagram, Selfies, and all that, but towards the end our time in the Vatican, she was REALLY hurting. So much so that she had to sit for a few minutes. Being the best mom ever (in that moment) I took pity and offered to trade her shoes for a bit. While mine were too small, at least they weren’t inflexible, short-heeled shoes. She tells me she’s learned her lesson well and will only be bringing sensible, tennie-like shoes to Australia. (Yes, my feet hurt too by the time we got home.

Luckily, even though it was a very small little lavanderia, there were machines available. Had we shown up 15 minutes later, we’d have waited hours. 4 parties showed up within minutes after we did. For the next hour, we played an amusing game of “telephone” wherein each new party that showed up, including us, were given directions on how to pay at the payment machine and start the process of getting our clothes ready for the next round of travel. All in all, it was an easy adventure, and we were really glad we took the time out to take care of “business”. No, not that kind of business.

Quickly dropping off our clean clothes at the Mini-Museum Airbnb, we moved on to the next part of our day. The afternoon would find us exploring the area of the Colosseum and Palatine Hill. Holy Archeological Paradise! One could spend a ridiculous amount of time walking the pathways winding through the ruins which include a wide variety of palaces, monuments, and temples.

Along the way we saw the Colonna Traiana:

And the Monumento Victor Emmanuel II- a ginormous marble neolith that is rather impressive. While formidable, that’s not what captivated us as we approached. Instead, we noticed a cavalcade of police swooping in to stop traffic for an altogether different kind of cavalcade to follow- a VERY long parade of tiny, antique Italian Fiats!! Oh, how very fond of their cars the Italians are!!! And it showed. Everyone on the sidewalks stopped to watch and cheered and clapped as they snaked their way around the traffic circles. Such a happy happenstance spectacle we got to see!

Next, we came to some ruins between the Monument and the Colosseum and had some extra time to kill before our timed entrance to the Colosseum at 3:30. We stopped in at the little ticket kiosk and once again showed them our CityPasses but were told they were not any good. Hmm… Dejected, we moved on and kept walking. We stopped for a couple pretty good groups of buskers and then arrived at the Colosseum. Too early still, we walked around it, then found the ticket kiosks to make sure that the tickets for THOSE were the right ones (they had been sent separately, so were fine) and we were told where to go when it was a few minutes before 3:30. Meantime, we were both exasperated with our lack of internet so asked where we could find a SIM card. The best answer was to take a quick taxi to the train station and buy one there.

So, we did. We had plenty of time still and were told we could be there, buy our ticket, and be back in under an hour. Zoom, Zoom!!! We hailed a taxi and raced off, and finally found out what the problem was with the card that my dad had given to me a week earlier. Apparently, there was some small fee on there that was preventing its use, so I paid that and just like that, we instantly had the world at our fingertips again. I tried a few pages before I left just to make sure!! Across the street we found a terrific little Middle Eastern fast-food place and loaded up on roasted chicken, rice, and naan. Honestly, it was a fantastic change from all the pasta we’d been eating.

We made it back to the Colosseum with a few minutes to spare before our time slot and soon enough we were inside where Gladiators once fought to the death. We listened to Rick Steve’s audio guide some but got lost a bit and gave up. Maybe the way they route you through it has changed since he made it? I dunno, but in the end we just kind of wandered through with everyone else. It must have been quite something to have been a spectator in its heyday; it’s truly an architectural wonder.