Rome, Finally We Are Here

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Finally, after hours of messing around with airplane tickets and this and that, we were in Rome. We found our apartment and settled in.

We walked to the Pantheon and back just to stretch our legs.

We had to get an early start to the day as we had a guided tour to the Colosseum. I didn’t realize but the tour included the Forum and Palatine Hill as well. I had thought that we’d take in the Forum and Palatine Hill in the afternoon so this was a pleasant surprise.

https://www.rome-museum.com/palatine-hill-rome.php

The tour was a 3-hour tour, going thru the Forum, Palatine Hill and the Colosseum but it could have lasted a couple of hours longer. We didn’t go thru nearly enough for me. Alas. I may try to go back while we are here.

We’d wanted to include in our tour, the underground of the Colosseum. Unfortunately, due to Covid, repairs did not start in time, so that portion remains closed. We did get to go out onto the Arena though and could look down into underground. Visible was the lift that was reconstructed to bring animals up to the arena floor.

https://www.frommers.com/blogs/passportable/blog_posts/rome-s-colosseum-gets-its-lion-elevator-back

The Forum and Colosseum are amazing, I’ve been there before so, knew what to expect, but each time is breathtaking. And with this trip, there were so few people.

The days are getting warmer, low 90’s and super humid. It’s hard to run around seeing sites all day, when all we want to do is sleep or sit and drink frozen coffee in the afternoon. The Italians have a good plan: go out early, nap in the afternoon, then go out in the evening and night.

As the evening starts the restaurants set up on nearly every street. Around our house they are open until 12 midnight. You can hear people talking and eating after the sun starts to go down.

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Photos

Animals were held in cages inside these arches
The animals were held for about 2 days without food or sunlight so that they were more aggressive when let out and taken up onto the arena floor.