So on Saturday we set out to see as much of Ancient Rome as we could handle. First stop? The Colosseum. We got there fairly early because we figured it being Saturday and beautiful weather it would probably get pretty crowded. (We were right.)
How to properly describe the Colosseum? It's just... ancient. And impressive. And pretty darn cool!
We of course had a Rick Steve's audio guide, which did a great job of highlighting all of the important and interesting stuff. And the guide kept talking about how busy and crowded the Colosseum would be, but we were some of the very first people there (no line - Roma pass!) and felt pretty self-satisfied and smug. It's a pretty great feeling.
The Colosseum is just so interesting. Yes, that's the word. And photogenic.
At one point in its heyday they estimate that there was a killing here every 5 minutes. EVERY 5 MINUTES!!! Can you even imagine?!?
You can pay extra for a super fancy tour down "under" the floor where the gladiators and animals and such were kept, but we didn't do that. I kinda wish we had, just so we could be down there, but then again it probably wasn't that great. (I'll just keep telling myself that.)
The Colosseum is amazing for several reasons: 1) It's so dang old. 2) It's so dang big (for being so old and all). 3) So much dang bad stuff went on there. (The killings and all.) 4) It really gives a feel for the grandeur of ancient Rome like nothing else.
I know, all these pictures of old stuff probably aren't that interesting to you - but to me it's fascinating because I was there! (What I'm saying is, sorry for all the boring pictures, but I like them.)
From up on the Colosseum you have a pretty good view of the Arch of Constantine.
And there's what's left of the temple of Roma and Venus. The Romans loved Venus for many reasons, my favorite being that Amor = Roma backwards.
I think that's the temple of Jupiter behind us.
And there's a seagull. I kept forgetting how close Rome is to the sea. I mean, it's a ways away, but it still had noisy, obnoxious seagulls aplenty.
This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. All these people were going nuts over this seagull, who was just standing there, staring at them like "Dudes. What's your problem?"
See those trees far off on the distance? Those are called umbrella pines. We really liked them.
The outside is pretty spectacular as well. I wish we could have gone back at night.
After the Colosseum we decided to go see the Roman Forum, which was the heart of Ancient Rome. There's those trees we like again! (And the Colosseum and arch.)
Of course we listened to another Rick Steves audioguide.
The Arch of Titus, celebrating the siege of Jerusalem. (Carvings of enslaved Jews and all.) This was pretty interesting because when I went to Jerusalem we learned all about that siege of AD 70, of course from the other, less triumphant side.
The temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina. (Yes, I had to look up these names again.) It was pretty impressive just seeing the ruins; I can only imagine how impressive it would have been originally!
Looking up to Palatine Hill. We didn't go there because there's only so many ruins you can appreciate in a day.
Lance hanging out in the Vestal Temple.
This is supposedly the exact spot where Caesar was murdered. "Et tu, Brute" and all that. For such a famous event, you'd think there'd be more than a mound of dirt with a tin roof overhead. But nope.
It's all really quite impressive. And it was a beautiful day, which made it all the better.
So after the Forum we decided we'd find a bite to eat and then hit the Capitoline Museum, home of a lot of famous Roman Art. We got a little lost on the way but got to visit Santi Luca e Martina, a church we had seen from the Forum and were curious about. For some reason it had holes with grates like this on the main floor, and we could see people walking around in the basement.
It had a beautiful little white dome.
So we got sidetracked by the church and forgot about lunch until we got to the museum, but decided we'd be okay. (This turned out to be a bad idea. Oops.) But before things went bad, we got to see what was left of an ancient 100 foot statue of Constantine. Who was, apparently, #1.
That's a big foot.
So we wandered the museum for a bit, but it wasn't too long before I realized it was a big mistake skipping lunch. We had walked literal miles that morning and I was all of a sudden STARVING. My blood sugar dropped and it was all I could do not to fall apart like a toddler. I was hungry and exhausted and tired, but felt compelled to at least see some of the more famous statues in the museum.
So we dragged our sorry selves out of the museum in search of something to eat. Only, there was NOTHING near by. Seriously, a food desert. So we Googled cafes and bakeries and such and found there was a really highly rated one fairly close by in the Jewish Ghetto. (Well, it's not really a ghetto anymore, obviously, that's just what the area is known as now.) The bakery turned out to no long exist. By this point I was really dragging, so we plopped ourselves down at the first little cafe we came to, ordered some panini and Cokes, and giggled at the name of the restaurant across the street. (Hah! The Ba'Ghetto! It still makes me laugh.)
This turned out to be the most expensive meal of our trip - for just those few things they charge us 20 Euro! My mouth kind of dropped when the lady told me, but I was in such shock I just handed the money over and left. I'm pretty sure they worked us over because we were tourists. We were the only tourists there! Dang it. We spent the rest of the afternoon grumbling about how that cafe was not helping to quell the stereotypes associated with that sort of neighborhood.
Rejuvenated, we decided it was time to cross the Tiber and see the Trastevere, which is this quaint, awesome neighborhood across the river from Rome. We went across the Ponte Fabricio, which goes to a little island in the middle of the river and then continues to the Trastevere. Very scenic!
The Trastevere is a maze! Even with Rick Steve's audio guide and Google Maps we were still getting lost a lot.
Here's a little church we were supposed to visit, but it was closed. Sad.
So the streets are smaller and windier here and the buildings all seemed squished, but they have plants and balconies and it's just pretty and calm and peaceful compared to metropolitan Rome.
We stopped to get gelato and sat on some steps in a square and people watched and soldier watched. Wherever there was something tourists might see or something politically important, there was a handful of soldiers with really big guns.
The inside of a church - maybe the Basilica di Santa Maria de Trastevere? Probably. The outside was being renovated, but the inside was pretty impressive.
After wandering for quite a bit we made it back to our apartment around 5pm. Too early for dinner, too late for sight seeing. So we basically collapsed. But there was a guy playing the clarinet just outside our window, so that was fun. (I only have video of him and I'm too lazy to upload it. Sorry.) I laughed when he started playing "The Entertainer". So very Italian!
That night we went back to the Trastevere and ate dinner at this little family owned restaurant. Our waitress barely spoke any English. She was the daughter. Grandma and Dad seemed to do all the cooking and Mom helped run the show. The food was SO good, probably the best of our time in Rome. And it was super fun to watch this little Italian family sitting across from us - a mom and dad and two little boys, probably around 9 and 12. The parents talked and the kids played and it was just nice to see them and it made me miss my kids a little.
On the way home the buses weren't running according to schedule, so we just walked. It was only a couple of miles, and we got to see this random fountain.
And the Parthenon at night. It's pretty cool at night! I think we also stopped by Trevi Fountain, too, but it was so dang crowded it wasn't worth trying to get a picture.
We walked A LOT in one day. Probably more than most Ancient Romans used to.
