Rome shopping

Well...shopping today in Rome proved to be interesting. First, let's just be clear that I don't think we have ever been anywhere with the kind of absolutely crazy driving that we see here. You gotta be brave and nuts to drive in Rome. We were in a taxi today and Jill was constantly grabbing my arm with fear. The roads don't have lane markings - not that the drivers would pay attention anyway. How many lanes on a road? As many as the drivers think will fit - plus one or two more for motorcycles. I have never seen so many motorcycles. And, if the drivers don't like how others are driving in lanes, they just cut across and make their own new lane. It is absolutely bizarre.

Anyway, we walked to what the hotel manager says is the best shopping on Via Del Corso. Only "about 10 minutes walk" - really closer to 20, but who's counting. Dodging traffic to cross streets was an adventure. It would appear that whoever just goes has the right of way here. At intersections without traffic lights, there seem to rarely be stop signs. Between cars coming from 2 and sometimes more directions and pedestrians crossing without crosswalks, there seems to be people and cars coming together like a literal logjam. Somehow, everyone seems to nudge and push through - with horns blowing and people holding up their hands at the cars. Some pay attention and some down. It is a wonder that people aren't constantly crashing into each other.

Anyway, back to the shopping. It turns out that this is really a shopping area - not just one street. But that didn't matter much to us. This didn't seem to be our type of shopping. How many extreme mini-skirts, ornate handbags, skinny-guy jeans, and other apparent "hooker-look clothes" can we really use? There were a few fancy stores selling virtually all black clothes for both men and women. Certainly, we recognized places like Nike, Puma, Addidas and Footlocker that we recognized. But we don't shop those stores at home either. Oh, within a few blocks there were 2 McDonalds. It did prove to be a very interesting and daring walk - but we didn't come away with many purchases. But we will certainly remember Via Del Corso as a highlight of Rome!

We made it to Trevi Fountain which was just two blocks from Via Del Corso. Quite nice once you looked past the 200 to 300 people circling the fountain and throwing in coins. I did get photos of the fountain which are attached to this email. I have also attached a photo of the north entrance to Via Del Corso.

A definite highlight was the taxi ride back to the hotel. We must have had the only taxi driver in Rome who didn't really know Via Giulio Cesare - that's Julius Caesar Drive if you haven't figured that out. It's strange when we could tell him he had gone too far and we directed him to the hotel. Poor guy was trying his best to use the GPS device but was having trouble entering the address and driving here at the same time. When we told him where/when to turn, he kept pointing to the GPS as if it knew better than us after being here two days! But, we got back to the hotel safely without walking the "10 minute walk" again.

After our about half-day little shopping excursion, we decided to hang around and relax for the rest of the day - that's code for "we went to sleep". And that was it for today.