The Shockwave Travel Writer Part 4

Xmas eve
Saw Trevi fountain, (and others ) the Presidents Palace, went to the Portaportese Flea Market and found that the trendy boots were anywhere from 10 Euro to 20 euro, that's about 5 UK Pounds!

Walked though a main shopping area, and compared prices. It's almost worth getting on Easyjet and flying here and back to the UK, when I have a few hundred pound to spend on clothes.

Xmas Day
The the stroke of midnight on Xmas eve all the church bells in town were ringing.
Opened Presents.
That day I went for a long walk to the Tiber River, and crossed at Tiber island and then back again a bit downstream.
I went past a few old temples, and you can see marble rubble just lying in courtyards of buildings, and churches that have Roman columns built in to the walls.
Travel on train/bus is really cheap, 1 Euro for 75 minutes, thats if you put your ticket in the machine. The last two days, the busses have been so full we have not been able to put the tickes inthe machines to validate them.

Boxing day
We took the Archeobus to see the Appian Way, San Callisto Catacombs , There are about 1 km of aqueducts just outside Rome.

Police forces
There are about 6 police forces in italy, andthey are mostly armed

1)Polizia di Stato (Civil Police)

2)Carabinieri (Military Police)

3)Guardia di finanza (Financial or Tax Police)

4)Corpo Forestale dello Stato ( Foresters)

5)Polizia Municipale ( Municipal Police mostly for Traffic)

6)Polizia Penitenziaria ( Jail officers )

There are armed guards on the subway, and at some stations.

Street Traders
There are a LOT of guys, selling Sun Glasses, Tripods, Wooden Trains in the shape of letters, scarves, etc.

I think they are mostly Bangladeshis.

The Natural enemyof the Street Trader is Number 3 above.


As in Rome there is, apart from the Romans, a population of statues, so apart from this real world there is a world of illusion, almost more potent, in which most men live. - Goethe