Lots and lots of ruins! - September 1, 2010

Sept. 1, 2010

Senne's Summary: Went to the Colosseum, Palatine and the Roman Forum. Saw A LOT of really really old ruins.

Wow, can you believe it’s September?!

This morning we continued with our regular routine of Mom and Gary going for cappuccino and Steve and I lazing around.

When we finally got ourselves organized we headed out to the Colosseum. As we were travelling along Steve and I took some photos for our current photo project, which is called "The Doors of Rome". Yep, I know we’re a bit odd… but we really like the doors here ☺

We arrived at the Colosseum and were hounded by approximately 2 bajillion people who wanted to give us an “English Tour”. Only 8 Euros and we could skip the line (which they told us would be between 1 and 2 hours long depending on who you talked to). No thanks we said. We’ll take our chances. We stood in the line for about 20 minutes before heading straight into the Colosseum. (Imagine--- those tour guides were stretching the truth to make a few extra bucks! Anyone surprised?) We’ve been very lucky with lines the whole entire trip (knock on wood).

We went into the Colosseum, which was very cool, and wandered around looking at it from every possible angle.

I think the most interesting part was looking at all the corridors and rooms that were the subterranean passages and holding pens. Steve was very excited about everything and probably could have spent hours on end inside this place. Mom, Gary and I waited patiently for Steve while he admired the ruins, dreamed of his life as a gladiator, and took more than his fair share of photos.

This is how we look hiding in a shady spot waiting for Steve to finish taking photos!

Next we headed out for lunch where we had another very good meal. I have to say that the food in Rome has been the most consistently good food we’ve had the entire trip. Steve and I both agree that if we were going to live in any of the big European cities we’ve visited it would be Rome (not just because of the food of course ☺).

After we were sufficiently energized we walked over to the Palatine and Roman Forum area where we looked at a lot more old ruins. It’s pretty amazing to imagine people living here 2000 years ago, and parts of what they built are still around.

We wandered around in here for quite some time (long enough for Gary to get a sunburn and me to get sore feet ☺).

Look we found a subterranean passage!

Afterwards, we headed home for Siesta time… snack time… card playing time (I was so good at Hearts that I got up to 100 points in no time at all 😉)

None of us were that hungry this evening, so we just wandered over to Piazza Navona for more gelato. I had the amarena (cherry) and chocolate combo, which was the perfect kind of dinner for me!