Win in Rome

We slept in a little later than usual, since we were exhausted from all the travel and stress yesterday. We got up about 9, and our host had made us breakfast! It was two waffles, with nutella in between, like a sandwich! It was crazy amazing! She said that maple syrup is hard to find in Italy, so she used nutella instead, and I'm so glad she did!

Anyways, next we headed out for another day of adventure! Our first stop was the Colosseum. We traveled by subway, since we already hate the busses here. There were tons of people! I guess since it is Saturday. A worker at the Colosseum told us that we couldn't go in right then since there were too many people, and that we should go to the Roman forum first, and then come back.

So we headed over to the Roman Forum, which is all the excavated remains of ancient Rome! It is amazing! All that is left of most of the buildings is the foundations, and maybe some pillars or support walls. It was crazy to try to imagine ancient Rome, in its prime. There was so much history there, that we walked around for about 3 hours, just listening to Rick Steves and reading the explanations they have at some of the excavated sites.

We first came upon the Arch of Titus. It hasn't changed much since it was first built. The Romans actually made the Jews build it to celebrate the Jews being defeated by Rome. They even had to carve a mural of the Romans taking the Jews treasure into the arch. Poor Jews.

 We also saw what was left of the basilica of Constantine. It wasn't actually a church in it's day as they didn't believe in Christianity. However, basilica is now used to refer to churches and a lot of churches based their design off of this one, including St Peter's basilica.

 There was also the remains of the vestal virgins quarters. This is where six virgins that were chosen by the emperor stayed and tended the Roman fire and made sure it was always lit. It was to symbolize the life of Rome. If it were to go out, so would Rome...or so they said. If a virgin was found to not be a virgin, they were paraded around the Roman forum and mocked, thrown into a dungeon with a load of bread and a lamb and buried alive. This happened frequently as a virgins term was thirty years. If they were chaste the whole time, they became very wealthy when they were done. Kevin said he would wait the thirty years for me! What a cheese!

 We also saw the remains of some temples, where Julius Caesar's body was burned, the Senate house, and lots of sweet marble everywhere! Such a cool place, you do need an imagination though.

 This is where Julius Ceasar was burned after he was murdered.

 This was a stadium on Palatine Hill...it reminded me of a Harry Potter Quiditch field.

Finally, we made our way back to the Colosseum. We got to skip the ticket line since we have the Roma Pass! You walk in through the north entrance, right into the arena at ground level! The floor of the Colosseum is of course gone, so you can see down into the tunnels that were below the arena, where they would keep animals and work on props for the games. It's amazing how much went into it. We walked around to the west side, which is where the gladiators would enter the arena! We learned that the Colosseum used to hold 50,000 people! It is so huge, especially for the time period it was built. We also went up to the second level and saw the views and took pictures from there.

 Kevin walking into the gladiator entrance...pumping up the crowd!

 Ground Level

 The Colosseum Cat...he didn't even move for pets...I know he was alive though because he was breathing.

 I completed the statue

After the Colosseum, we went to visit the pantheon. On the way there,we stopped in the piazza by La venezia, which is another amazing building, but I have no idea what it's used for! They did have a fire of time burning here! We had lunch at a little cafe with a great view of the venezia, and I had a delicious panini! The cheeses here are just so much better than anything I've ever had. Kevin had a real Italian pizza, and it was very good too!

 The flame of Rome is there on the left in the picture below...hard to see though.

The pantheon is one of the best preserved ancient buildings in Rome. In front are about 10 huge pillars, all imported from Egypt and one piece! That is crazy, as it is not normal for columns to be made by one piece. The pantheon influenced architecture so much that many basilicas, and even the white house are modeled after the pantheon's dome. There are also a couple tombs in the pantheon...an Italian king and his son, along with the famous renaissance artist Rafael. Kevin told me the teenage mutant Ninja turtles are named after the four famous renaissance artists...didn't know that!

After the pantheon, we stopped at the lindt chocolate store they have here, and got lindt gelato, so good! They also have tons of chocolate in there...I was in heaven!

Next was the trevi fountain! If you don't know the legend, if you throw money in the fountain, it means that you'll come back to Rome! So... We come to the trevi fountain, and it is under construction! As in, no water left, the statues are covered, and you are blocked off completely from the fountain except for a small walkway. Kevin spoke Spanish to the police man there to ask when it would be finished! All we could say was "cuando...la agua...aqui?" And he understood and motioned 2..0..1..5 with his hands! I was so sad! We saw a postcard with the trevi fountain on it, and it is so beautiful! Of course, we went out on the walkway and threw money in the empty fountain anyway, but it wasn't the same! Oh well, I guess we'll have to come back to Rome when it's finished haha!

 No water...so sad.

Our last stop for the day was the Spanish steps, which had a fountain that's also under construction, with a building at the top...also under construction! Honestly, I don't really see what's so amazing about the steps. It must be something about Italy and stairs, because every night we are out late, there are people just sitting on the stairs leading up to churches and buildings, just hanging out and talking! And there were tons of people sitting on the Spanish steps! I guess it's a hangout place for Italians...and tourists.

We headed home and finished our exhausting day! We saw so much...it was fantastic...I would call that a win. 

Winning!

Ta ta for now!