At night we walked around the shopping area. Went to see the Trevi Fountain (the 3 coins in a fountain fountain) and threw our coins in. It’s a beautiful fountain with sculptured horses and all. Now all of us are assured of a repeat visit to Rome. – all except Jeannine who threw her coin into the fountain and it landed behind her in the street. Judy had a near mishap when she got her foot caught in a trolley track and lost her shoe while crossing the street.
We’ve spent 5 days total in Rome. Each was a 12 to 14 hour day and we made the most of every minute, visiting the most important sites. Rome is expensive and almost full up. The hostel was way out of town and we were very lucky to stumble into a clean nice pension for about $1.30 a day right in the center, a block from the Coliseum.
Today we left Rome after 5 days and drove to Florence. It is a 400 bed hostel and in an old Medici Palace. They gave our reservations to someone else and we had to sleep in corridors. It was rainy and cold and we cut our visit short. A hostel full of 400 Europeans – mostly Greeks and French – get pretty grubby. Hostelers are not very clean people. I can’t imagine what hostels smell like in the summer.