Third day in Roma

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Sunday: Today we got up bright and early because Kenya was super excited to go see the Colosseum! We took the Metro subway to the Colosseo stop, took the stairs up, and right as we came out of the entrance, the Colosseum and Constantine’s Arch was right there in front of us, in ALL its glory!!! Seriously, this was the purpose of our whole idea of going to Rome…Our mouths hung open for like a minute!!! Since it was so early in the morning, we decided that we would just go over to the Pantheon so I could have my much coveted cup of espresso from Sant’ Eustachio Bar…well, we walked about a half mile, when I discovered that we were going the wrong way…again. So we stopped at a gelato stand and had a pastry for breakfast. Then we walked back to the Roman Forum/Palatine Hill, which is right by the Colosseum, and they had just opened their gates, so we bought our tickets (combo ticket for the Forum and the Colosseum) and walked throughout the entire thing. This was truly an experience to see the ruins of where Caesar Augustus ruled. We saw Augustus’ house, and Livia’s (Caesar’s wife)house, we saw the Roman Forum where they ruled and brought justice. It was so quiet there because we were so early, there were not very many tourists yet…perfect! I was amazed at some of the ruins that were so intact, but saddened at the ones that were not, like the marble columns. When we finally got done, we left there and came across the Race for the Cure that was happening on Via Imperoli. That would have been neat to take a part in, since I do it in Seattle every year! By then (around 11:00) I REALLY wanted my coffee, so we walked over to where the Pantheon was (about two winding miles away) and after going around the Pantheon and its surrounds, like five times, we finally came upon Sant’ Eustachio Bar…it was in this tiny little courtyard about two blocks away from the Pantheon. I had read about this place being the absolutely best place to get a cup of espresso, from several sources. I was prepared to order it the Roman way, by ordering it from the cashier first, then bringing my receipt to the counter and setting down the receipt with a few euros on it. Here was how I gave my order: “Buon Giorno, una gran caffe per favore”….what I got from the barista was pure magic!!! Oh wow…I don’t know if I could ever go back to regular coffee again! I got a sweet concoction of pure java jolt along with some frothy sweet milk on top…I even let Kenya take a sip, and she agreed it was something otherworldly!!! LOL Wow! If only I could recreate that over and over again! After that wonderful respite, we went back to the Pantheon which by the way, was half covered up by scaffolding. There was a mass going on, so they were not allowing visitors to go inside. We decided it would be a good time for lunch so we went to the nearby pizzeria and Kenya had a pizza and I had a mortadella sandwich…mortadella is kind of like a salty version of bologna. I wish there would have been tomatoes on it, to cut some of the saltiness out, but it was a great experience to try something I have read so much about. We ate it sitting by the fountain right in front of the Pantheon, and had a great time people watching…there was this family, that were so well dressed, and were obviously Italian, but tourists anyway, I could not get over the mother and daughter’s super high stilettos they were wearing…I have not mentioned it up until now, but even though I was wearing comfortable shoes, it was still hard to constantly walk on all the cobblestones…I could not even imagine wearing stilettos anywhere in Rome! I took a secret picture of the mom so I could remember that moment…lol.

Once we were able to go into the Pantheon, we were again awestruck by the ancient architecture we were seeing…how could it have been made that long ago, and how does it last so long? I was very excited to take those pictures of the occulus (hole in the ceiling). Che bella!! I wish we had made it to the Pantheon in order to attend mass…I’m not Catholic, but it would have been a neat experience anyway…especially to hear the acoustics when singing hymns! I will not ever forget the heavenly acoustics at St. Peters!

Pretty macabre if you ask me. We decided that since we had ventured so far away from the Colosseum, we would splurge and buy tickets for the open top tour bus…the afternoon turned out to be really sunny and warm! It was the best 39 euros spent! We bought the tickets at a local tabbacci, then spent a half hour looking for the bus stop! It was pretty hilarious, because as soon as we saw one, we’d rush after it to see if we could see where they were stopping. When we finally found the location, we missed the bus by seconds, but no problem, we waited for 20 minutes and got another one. It took us around the whole city, where we got to see places that we wanted to see and places that we felt if we missed on this trip, it would be ok. When we finally got back to the stop near the Colosseum, we hopped off and made our way back to the majestic ancient monolith. Again, Kenya and I were so happy to have had bought tickets previously that morning, over at the Roman Forum…the lines were extremely long, even the group tour lines!! So again, we marched all the way past all of the waiting people and went right in. Kenya was completely mesmerized by the Colosseum…she LOVED learning about all the history that had played out there, and she was completely enthralled with the gorgeous displays of the gladiator wear. I know she is planning a welcome home party for herself and her friends, and she wants to buy a gladiator costume in the worst way, but I convinced her to have everyone wear togas instead…lol. There were a lot of steps that we took all over the place! Up and down, then way down to the exit! One thing I was very surprised about was the lack of the Gypsies and their kids…I never saw even one! Several places I had researched, like my Rick Steves book, warned about the begging and the kids who were relentless…I was so relieved that we saw and experienced none of that! I have a pretty soft heart, and begging kids would be the worst, but if you gave to one, you’d probably have a crowd around you in seconds! Thankfully, Rome must have done a huge clean-up effort recently, because we did not experience any begging Gypsies. This is a good a point as any to mention that even the “hobos” looked well dressed in their suits as they dug through the garbage cans looking for something to eat, and the men sitting on the sidewalk with every possession they had, always looked very clean and really very friendly. Kenya and I never felt unsafe in this huge bustling city.

After the Colosseum, we hopped back on the double decker bus and made our way around the entire city again…got different lighting for pictures and places I missed. We got off near the Hard Rock Café, and went to see the Church of the Cappuchin Monks. Kenya had read about this place and it appealed to her “dark” side…hee hee. The “church” consisted of four little dark rooms that housed the bones of monks who had died a looong time ago. They used the bones as ornate art…making elaborate frescos on the walls, and chandeliers and sconces on the ceiling. They even had whole mummies lying repose on a couch made from bones. Pretty macabre if you ask me. Really the purpose of it was to show that while the Romans cremated their dead, the Christian monks buried theirs, and when they started running out of room, this is what they decided to do to preserve the bodies. Once we got that out of our system, we hopped on the bus once again and made our way back toward our hotel. We stopped to eat at Gemma Lupos near our hotel, and I had Oxtail stew (yes, it still had the bone tail knuckles in it…) quite delicious actually, and Kenya had an antipasti salami platter and lots of bread! Yawn! We were quite sleepy and worn out by now, so it’s off to the hotel for a little reading and postcard writing!

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