Roman Holiday
Travellers' Choice 2012, an annual rating by millions of travelers on TripAdvisor, recently rated Rome higher than Paris as a tourist destination. While I may not rate these two fabulous cities in quite that order, I can see why Rome has continued to fascinate so many travelers through the ages.
We had rented an apartment on Via die Serpenti, a quaint little street that sloped gently down from the towering ramparts of the Colosseum, lined with tiny shops and graffiti-adorned wooden doors. An old fountain gurgled in the middle of a small cobble-stoned piazza. Wrought-iron chairs and checkered table-cloths spilled out of trattorias around the piazza. Micro-cars, scooters and bikes lined both sides of the tiny streets. The late-April morning in Rome was refreshing cold as I looked out of my window, a full ten degrees lower than the hot Pune summer I had left behind!
