Rome

We arrived in Rome without much incident.  Our only problem is we didn't know which station to get off the train (there are 2)  and picked the wrong one.  No problem though we found a Taxi and got to the Hotel.  It was a very nice hotel and the staff is very helpful.  Donna did a great job picking this place.  We unpacked a little charged up our phones and headed out to see the Jewish Ghetto.   First thing we did was to take a tour of the Synagogue.   That turned out to be a verygood decision because it was almost 4:00 and the museum closed at 5:00.  It  was really an interesting tour and I learned a lot of things I didn't know.  Like Jews were established in Rome before any other area of Europe.  Also Judah Maccabee sent his sons to Rome to cement relations with the Roman Replublic and from there more Jews moved creating a decent Jewish population.  They are an Orthodox community and practice, have rituals and prayers that are all their own, leaning more toward Sephardic, really still different.  I learned much more but don't want to bore anyone with more Jewish history.  The inside of the synagogue was beautiful and I am very glad we were able to see it and the area  that housed the Jews for most of their history here, until recently.  We stayed in the area for Dinner and got to try fried artichokes.  They are delish!  After that we set out walking to find the Trevi Fountain.  It seemed like a short walk and we had our street guide but street guides are only good if you can find street signs.  There is always at least one, but most likely not on the corner where you are standing.  It took us awile, but again with the help of GPS and google mps.we found it.  We celebrated with our daily gelato.

The synagogue

Eating in the ghetto Ebraica 

Fried artichoke-Jewish style