Rome: At Night

 We spent a few nights walking around Rome - it is a very nice time to be out as the weather cools off. This is Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II.

 The Colosseum is particularly beautiful at night.

 Via dei Fori Imperiali at night.

 Most of these cars in the background are illegally parked so the owners can jump out and take a few Colosseum pics.

 The Roman Forum at night.

They project images of Roman statues on the Roman Forum after dark.

We spent one evening having dinner at the Piazza Campo de Fiori, shown here.

 Seriously, I did not notice that wine glass looking so spotted while we were there! It sure jumps out at me in this photo though!

  As dusk falls, the nightlife begins. I had done a lot of research online for good bars to visit in Rome. One in particular sounded big and busy with a DJ, called the Drunken Ship. It was supposed to be on the edge of this Piazza.

The numbering system being somewhat sketchy, we took a few wrong turns and ended up down some sidestreets with other bars and a lot of motorcycles.

Looping back to the Piazza, we found the Drunken Ship. Here it is. It looked nothing like a large bar with a DJ to me. It was the end of our vacation, we were worn out, so we took a pass and went back to the hotel. Now that I'm well rested and back home, I kinda wish we would have given it a chance and had a few drinks there.

Piazza Campo de Fiori:



Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, with what appeared to be police vans being escorted. It actually looked like they said "penitentiary" on the side, but I could have been mistaken:

Rome: The Cars of Rome

Being a car guy, I just have to show you a few of the cars I saw in Rome. We'll start with the "taxi" we took from the Rome airport to our hotel...a very nice Mercedes van just like this one. Actually, another left the airport at the exact same time, and the two drivers dueled each other in traffic all the way through central Rome. It was quite intense.

 We saw it for the first time in London, but also all over Rome hooligans have altered "do not enter" signs to look like a surfer with board. heh.

 Here is a more unusual alteration of a "do not enter" sign...

 And Alfa Romeos! Oh my, the Alfas! They were everywhere and are very gorgeous automobiles!

 They are even used as police cars in Rome.

Another Alfa with trees giving a beautiful hue to the paint.

 We saw a number of Chrysler products in Rome, including this Town & Country. They were all diesels, too.

 One day across the street from the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, there was a car display of some sort, all with the same sticker on the doors. I never did figure it out, but took a few photos. Here is a Jag XJ.

 A Jag XF.

 A few Fords.

  With a few more in the second row. I wish I knew why they were there.

A regal looking little Fiat 500.

 Another spectacular Alfa.

 A nice looking little Fiat.

 Luigi! An original Fiat 500 from the 60s. Look how big that Toyota looks in front of it.

 A Peugot. Looks good, but maybe I took the pic because of the Jag in front of it!

 We only saw one car booted the whole time we were in Rome. And this was it...parked on the edge of Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II.

 A nice little Alfa hatchback.
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 A diesel Jeep about a block from the Vatican

 Since I've been cherry-picking nice cars for the pics above, I thought I'd show you a random street with random cars. Nothing special in this row of cars, just wanted you to see a typical Rome street.

 I have no idea what this is, but it sure is small!

 A Rolls Royce used to accent the Westin hotel.

T

 his is an Opel. Just this year, they have been rebadging them and bringing them to the US as Buicks.

 Note the great sunroof.

 Fiat 500.

 Great little Fiat on the edge of Roma Termini.

 Colorful line of cars.

 Another original Fiat 500 I found at night.

 At our favorite little nightcap spot on Via Cavour, we noticed how the double-parking started late on Saturday night.

 The rotund man who owned this gray Alfa checked to see if anyone was looking before he left the scene on foot while he was double parked. As luck would have it, the minivan owner soon appeared and laid heavy on the horn until the Alfa man reappeared.

 The Alfa man let him out, then took his spot.

 Sorta. Not the greatest parking job...

...as you can see from this pic! The Alfa man had returned to his nightspot, thinking this was a perfectly acceptable way to park. Rome!