Today, we went many years back in time. First stop:
Colosseum. What an engineering feat! The magnitude of the building and imagining it even larger when fully built - woah! With a tour guide, we got to walk around outside and inside the Colosseum and hear about the history. I could not even begin to try and explain the history so I will leave you to google it!
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| Colosseum |
Next, we walked to
Roman Forum. This area is all ruins from many centuries past but shockingly much of it still well intact. This was about 1.5 - 2 hours of walking in the sun and finding shade when available. The terrain was tough at times and steps and hills were abundant. When the tour wrapped up, we headed for lunch.
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| Roman Forum - so much old stuff... that is the technical term |
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| Where they had chariot races |
At lunch, a few of the servers were from the Dominican Republic. Susan had the best roasted potatoes of the trip so far along with chicken and salad. We also ordered a Greek salad and I'm pretty sure I ate my weight in olives!!! Sierra got a Caesar salad and she and I shared a chicken sandwich with potato chips. The servers were continually singing to us throughout our meal. When we were leaving, they called a taxi so we didn't have to wait out in the hot sun.
Headed next to
Pantheon. If I remember correctly, it was built around the 1st century AD and what was so unique about it was the size of the dome without any supporting beams or columns other than along the edge. We walked through the city, stopped at some churches, and headed towards the
Altare della Patria building. Along the walk, we discovered
Suite Benedict, a cute store. Sierra found some adorable shorts and I got a small tote bag.
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| Hanging out in the Pantheon |
Altare della Patria building was built after the unification of Italy, which is relatively recent (built from 1885-1925). The locals call it the typewriter or the wedding cake!!! Before actually exploring the building, we got some gelato and parked Susan at a little cafe. She was able to take a break while Sierra and I headed to the top for amazing vista #3. We walked some steps and then paid the admission to take an elevator to the top (worth every euro). What a view! We could see all of Rome from up here. It was incredible and if you are heading to Rome I would highly suggest it. It gave great views of Colosseum and Roman Forum in one direction and the Vatican in the other. Plus we could even see Borghese park.
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| Altare della Patria |
We caught a taxi back to hotel to freshen up for dinner. This night, we made a reservation at the
Fiori di Zucca (which mean squash flower or pumpkin flower). Susan had received a recommendation from someone on the bus. Sierra and I split a stuffed pizza... it was interesting... I may have started to reach my limit on pizzas!
We caught a taxi back to hotel to freshen up for dinner. This night, we made a reservation at the Fiori di Zucca (which mean squash flower or pumpkin flower). Susan had received a recommendation from someone on the bus. Sierra and I split a stuffed pizza... it was interesting... I may have started to reach my limit on pizzas!