Honeymoon Part I – Arrive and explore Roma

On Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009, I married Kim Allen at Moonstone Beach. The wedding was perfect. The sun came out and there were lots of happy, smiling friends and family members in attendance.



The next Wednesday we embarked on a three-week honeymoon in Italy. This is the first part of a lengthy series on this blog detailing our adventures.

We flew from Arcata to San Francisco, then to Chicago and on to Munich.



In Munich I was "Shocked! Shocked! Shocked!" to discover that they put naked ladies on the front pages of newspapers.




From Munich, we crossed the alps on our way to Rome.



We were already sleep deprived from the wedding festivities, and extremely tired after a 20-hour trip. So we were really glad that a taxi driver met us at the airport. At first I wondered why he didn't put both our names on the sign. Then I remembered. Duh!



When we arrived at the hotel, we discovered that Kim's parents had booked us the honeymoon suite. It was a sweet suite!



We flung open the shutters and listened to the chaos which is Rome. We wanted to go explore, but we were so sleepy. Perhaps just a little nap was in order. We closed closed our eyes and immediately zonked out.



When we woke up, it was dark outside. I snapped photos from the window. We rubbed our eyes and went outside.



We walked down the street and admired the colosseum at night. This 2,000-year-old entertainment complex is where gladiator battles were held and Christians were fed to lions.



Nearby there were lots of neat things to look at, like the Arco di Costantino from the 4th Century AD.



Everything seemed so foreign and exotic, even the streets. Were returned to the hotel to get a good night's rest so we could see even more the next day.



I call this our "rookie photo" because the fact that it was even taken shows how naive we were about Rome. I saw this building and thought it was so interesting that I made Kim take my photo in front of it. After a day or two, I realized that this building didn't compare at all to the other architectural marvels, most of which aren't included in any guidebooks.



We walked down to Trajan's Forum, above. Pretty amazing stuff. In the middle is Trajan's column from AD 113. It has intricately carved reliefs from bottom to top depicting a battle.



We then paid to get into the Roman Forum.



Here I am thinking really deep thoughts.



I did battle with some gladiators. The hard part came after the photos were taken and it was time to negotiate the fee.



We stopped often to smooch.



When we got hungry, we purchased roasted chestnuts from a street vendor.





We checked out the colosseum. Here's my wife!



Here's my wife on a different day with a fancy hat.



The inside of the colosseum was extremely interesting. This was a sophisticated, albeit brutal, operation.



Later we checked out this monument, which was described in one of the guidebooks as Roman architecture on steroids. (Note: Photo above was taken in the evening on a different day.)



The statues were huge.



We checked out a nearby protest.



Later that night we celebrated a wonderful start to our marriage.





Before going to sleep, I heard a familiar song from The Godfather. I looked out the window and heard this guy performing.