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Published: March 4th 2011
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Outside the Colloseum
Jake and I waiting in line for tickets outside of the Colloseum We started Day 3 in Rome with sunshine! Finally! Sure enough, it didn't last very long. The rain was sure to pick up, but it wasn't as bad as it has been. From the late afternoon onwards we had clear skies.
Our big trip today was to the
Colloseum and
Forum. In effort to catch as much sunshine as we could, we tried to take off early. Our apartment hosts provide us with some things for breakfast including, bread crackers, espresso, packaged pastries, cereal, and pear juice. We picked up some bread and Nutella, because no international trip is complete without a jar of Nutella along the way.
After grabbing a quick bite to eat we headed for the train station. The train system in Rome is pretty good and easy to understand. We bought a pass for all day to all train destinations for 4€. We transferred train lines and then as soon as we stepped outside at the Colloseum stop, BAM! The Colloseum was right before us! It was massive (as the Brits would say).. Coming out from the train station is actually a great way to present the Colloseum.
We waited in line for quite
The Colloseum
Both Jake and I are in this one.. try and see how many of us you can spot! a while for tickets (12€) and also picked up the audio guide (4.50€). It was just crazy to think that the Colloseum we had learned about in Art History class in college was right here! I feel like I have seen so many pictures and have heard so much about it, but then to be inside of it was just surreal. The audioguide we had was informing, but it was awfully short. Unfortunately, while we were inside it started to rain more, which made a bit uncomfortable and hard to take pictures (plus we left our umbrellas in Livia's car the night before). We still got some very cool shots, as you see here. We took a panaromic shot outside of the Colloseum that both Jake and I are in (a few times.. look closely).
Also, who in their right mind comes to Rome and carves their name into the bricks at the
Colloseum? That was annoying to see all over.
After the Colloseum we saw the
Forum which was really interesting to see so much ruins. Some parts were really quiet and it was kinda eerie, but very cool. Then we were off to the Spanish Steps,
My best friend
Mmm.. making us some delicious Nutella crepes which I wasn't too impressed with I guess. I mean there were a lot of people there so it was kinda annoying and I was already tired out. But glad I can check that off my list I guess.
On the way back to the apartment, we stopped for some crepes... mmm delicious Nutella crepes. I also had some Noce (pecan) gelato.. it was very good. Right as we got this the sun started to come out again and it was sunny from here on out.. the only thing is that we were tired from walking around all day. We enjoyed the crepes and gelato at some table on the street in the sunshine.. my coat sleeve enjoyed a lot of the gelato too! It's interesting that at each
Gelateria they make their own whipped cream, and it varies quite a bit from place to place.
So I have my
crazy italian story of the trip. At one point, we were waiting for Livia to come over and I was using Jake's laptop. Then we heard the door downstairs buzz, but we are not supposed to buzz people into the building, so Jake went down to go get
Pure Goodness
Nutella Crepe and Noce Gelato her, if it was her. Well, it wasn't and as he came up I was standing in our doorway waiting, and this short Italian guy across the hall starts yelling something in Italian at us. He must have been in his 50s or something. And I just stood there confused, not sure if he was actually talking to us.. then Jake says "Sorry I don't speak Italian". Then this guy mutters "I don't speak Italian" a few times under his breath. Then he starts screaming "Don't open the door!" and he rushes off mumbling in Italian. We scury back into the apartment. Then I hear some shouting outside and then I lean out our window (from the 2nd floor) and he's outside yelling in Italian and saying over and over "Don't open the door!" and runs towards the building giving me the finger! I slam the windows shut and back away from them, then we hear the front door buzzin again. Jake runs down to find Livia and they see the crazy man across the street. He starts rushing towards them and they run upstairs and we slam the door. Then he gets in the building and is banging on
Mmm... pizza
Ok, we really didn't have this pizza, but it just look so good, I had to take a picture. our door yelling in Italian. Livia translates that he's saying all sorts of things but not maing any sense. Finally he leaves and we call our host,
Ivan. Ivan explains that this guy is a former drug-addict/alcoholic and is just kinda crazy and that everything was ok. It was pretty exciting 15 minutes.
Then later on Ivan stopped by to prepare for our neighbors who were arriving shortly. We still haven't met them yet. While he was here, we asked him to recommend a good Pizza place. He recommended this place called Naples Pizza. He said the real style pizza comes from Napoli, Italia, and that probably most of what we were having is Roman pizza, the wrong pizza as he calls it- either way it's all delicious.
So we arrive at this pizza place and it is a very nice restaurant at a garden level. The prices were very affordable (pizza 8€, glass of red wine 3.50€, bruschetta 3€). There were all these loud Italians there, they were singing and clapping.. it felt soo authentic! They had live music as well. This guy was singing and playing guitar and keyboard. There was even a guest singer of
Creepy Bag-covered Statue
There was just something super creepy about this one. a woman from the restaurant. They were really good, I even did a voice recording using my iPhone.
After dinner, we quickly met Livia and her sister Ludovichi(?) who were waiting for us in their car outside of our apartment. They took us to this local pub called Green Field Pub or something like that. They had live music too, it was great. These guys were very cheerful, older guys, probably in their 40s or so. They were playing all cover music, including U2, but mostly Italian music. I had another Italian beer, Menabrea.
After that, we dropped Livia's sister off at her car and then Livia took us on a car tour of Rome. At this point, it was about midnight. We drove up to St. Peter's Square, the Colloseum, and other sites in driveby mode. She showed us all these little fun and entertaining places that people sometimes go. Nothing real touristy, just places kids and young people go. We went to this one sort of park up on a hill with these creepy statues that were covered in clear plastic bags.. it was quite odd. We were by some monunment and Livia told us that
Part of our Livia-Tour
We are at one of our stops. I look a little giddy in this photo. teenagers come up here to drink, smoke weed, and make out. She also had other bits of history about the monuments that I fail to remember.. haha! There was a guy Girabaldi, (it's actually an Italian restaurant near where Jake lives in Hoffman Estates, IL). He united the North and South, taking over with only 1000 men.
After going to a few other random places, we decided to call it a night and came home about 2:30am. Our last day full day is tomorrow- we are going to a Batman party in the evening! Fun times.
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