Day 20 - Night Walk

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Walking around the downtown at night.

DSCF1481 The area just south of Termini is not very nice.

DSCF1482 What a lovely bus! The buses north of Termini are much nicer, I wonder if this is intentional.

DSCF1483 A building at night! Too bad I cannot tell you what it is.

DSCF1484 See previous comments, but consider this is a different building.

DSCF1485 A nice fountain... well, there are nice fountains everywhere.

DSCF1488 Fiat = Fix It Again Tony (or so the old joke goes)

DSCF1489 The center statue in that fountain.

DSCF1490 Egyptian style lions spit water into the fountain.

DSCF1495 Well, maybe you can, but this is actually a Harley Davidson clothing store.

DSCF1496 The back of the U.S. Embassy. This small section you see compromises maybe a quarter of the complex.

DSCF1497 There is a sign over there that says U.S. Embassy. I probably should have deleted this picture.

DSCF1500 Trevi Fountain at night (still crowded... but at least that meant the nearby gelateria was open... mmmmm...).

DSCF1504 Walking away from Trevi I spotted the

DSCF1507 I rode in a Benz back to the residence!

DSCF1508 Of course the Benz was a large bus.

June 20, 2005 in Rome

I read about a shop that sells movie posters of Italian films and Italian versions of American movies, and thought it would be an interesting place to visit. The shop was supposed to be in the 300 block of a street running past the Termini Station. This last sentence reveals a fatal flaw in my plan. Back home, each block is assigned a 100 designation (even if there are not 100 addresses in that block... more often there are not). Here the addresses seem to start at one number and keep counting up, crossing streets and going from block to block. So what I assumed would be a three-block walk turned into being around eight blocks.

I went there after dinner, and by the time I found the place it was closed. This was also unfortunate because it was getting dark and the subways stop running at 9 p.m. It was time to start walking, or find a bus going the direction I wanted. I was southwest of Termini, and needed to be on the east side of it to get a bus headed toward the residence. The area south of Termini seems to be the worst part of Rome. It seems to be a popular hangout with prostitutes and drug users. This prompted me to hop onto a bus headed to Termini when it came my way.

From Termini I thought I would take a walk northwest and see some sights at night, looking at bus stops on the way for one headed toward my apartment. On this walk I passed a few interesting things, including Trevi Fountain once again and the U.S. embassy. The embassy is probably the biggest building I have seen in Rome outside of the Vatican. I will have to take a look at it in the daytime. For security reasons, the sidewalk surrounding the embassy is closed off from public traffic (even though the embassy is located a good distance behind an iron fence.

Eventually I thought I would not find a bus, and had decided upon walking to the Spanish Steps to see what they look light at night. Right about that time a bus stopped next to where I was walking. I noticed it was the Cipro Station bus (the last stop is listed on the front of the bus). Maybe we'll see the steps at night another time.

- Jay.