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This is Saturday. We did not feel the need to get up early. We slept in then had a leisurely breakfast the hotel offers on the roof patio. This is where we quickly learned that coffee in Europe labeled American Coffee is not what we consider American Coffee! We found the coffee machine and pressed for American Coffee. Out came Nescafe instant with hot water. Gary quickly learned to like Cappuccino! The breakfast was great with bread for toast, croissants, breakfast pastries, Italian meats sliced paper thin, mozzarella, boiled eggs (all eggs we saw were brown shell), fruit, cereal, yogurt that you only knew what kind it was by the picture on the container. Beautiful morning & we were off to the café for a little more caffeine!
Today we take the bus to the Coliseum. We had planned to probably pick up a tour going in and we did for about 30 Euros each. This included Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. This is an amazing building. The engineering and architecture are beyond comprehension. I personally was overcome to think many early Christians were taken here to fight for their lives. The culture during this time was
so vastly different as people were cheering those being killed and the killing of animals. By the way, they do have containers for recycling here AND modern restrooms.
We had time to look on our own after about an hour with the tour guide. Then we met up with the next leg of the tour with another tour guide. Colin was recently certified historian with more to come about his offerings.
Palatine Hill is one of the many hills in Rome and is the center most of the Seven Hills. Palatine is the word Palace comes from and some of the largest palaces were built on this hill. The trip up is not for the weak. It has some serious stair climbing but so worth it when you arrive at the top! There are some drinking fountains here and since we had filters in our water bottles filled up! The gardens growing there are filled with beautiful flowers. You can see the Roman Forum from the hill side above the Forum. We will join Colin for an evening walk around Rome for 15 Euros per person.
We do the Forum on
our own. This was a shopping area of Rome at the time. There is a cemetery. This has some interesting architecture.
The evening we meet Colin and do a 2 plus hour walking tour of Rome which was great as there were only 4 of us. We had the opportunity to see where the city has tried to expand the subway system but continue to hit ruins. They have been trying for 20 years to expand but find blocks at every try. We saw Treve Fountain, passed by the Pantheon and the fountain there. Looked down the locked gate to the smallest (most narrow) church in Rome. Catholic of course! We received lots of history about the buildings from the past and today, especially Mussolini involvement. This was a loved 2 hours, ending with gelato and shopping areas. I would encourage you to check out
www.romefreetour.com and his soon coming
www.italytravelcompany.com.
Then end to another marvelous day with about 10 hours of walking. Tomorrow, the crusie!
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