Our Flight into Rome got in around 8pm... and the train ride from the airport to the city was at least 30 minutes... so by the time we got into the city it was already dark. The signs at the train station for the metro were very confusing and there was nothing that explained how to pay your bus fare so we ended up walking to our hotel from the train station... which, wasn't as close as we thought, and probably was not the best idea we've ever had... but we made it safe and sound - and found some tasty Italian pizza to eat along the way!
The next day we figured out the bus system and caught a ride to the Colosseum.
It was windy, and chilly, and very sunny... so we have lots of goofy-face photos to share! We had planned to pay the 30 euro fee to get into the Colosseum... but we were approached by some English speaking locals offering a group tour (in English) that allowed us to skip the lines and learn some stuff along the way for 50 euros... so we decided to do that... was it a scam? egh... debate-able.... but it was nice to have someone telling us the history behind what we were seeing - since neither of us had any time to brush up on our European history before we left!
I personally felt like the Colosseum was pretty sad... it was in complete ruins since the Catholic church and other scavengers took everything and anything that wasn't nailed down. Even the floor was gone. The historical people had built a partial floor on one end to give people an idea of what it would have been like back in the day... but I was pretty disappointed at just how much wasn't there.
After the tour was over, the leader offered a second 'free' tour of the Palentine Palace which was hosted by their company, but by an American tour guide.... We decided it wouldn't hurt to again have someone explain what we were looking at as we toured the area so we stayed with the group.
Behind us was one of the main 'entertainment arenas' in the Palace... well, again... whats left of it...
After the Palace tour we explored the Roman Forum...
Loads of really cool ruins...
And even some displays of a few mosaics that survived.
After leaving the forum we walked to the Piazza Venezia...
There was a pretty neat building with lots of statues... the horse in the center supposedly was large enough to have a crew of 10+ men eat dinner inside it before completing the statue...
By this time we were again:
Tired+Hungry = Cranky Mess
So for the sake of peace we found a cafe to eat lunch at pronto!!
After lunch we walked to the Pantheon... I was pretty pleased that we were able to find it so easily on our own.
We did not go inside... but instead kept walking to see if we could find the Trevi Fountain
There were lots of interesting ruins along the way...
We made it to the fountain... but the lighting was terrible and none of our photos with the fountain really turned out at all... it was pretty awesome to see it in real-life... but it was super crowded!
We kept walking towards the Spanish Steps... there were lots of upscale shops along the way...
Stopped in the Hermes Store just to say we did (Love you Madre)... but the cheapest scarf was 310 euros or like $400!!! Yikes!
We made it to the Spanish Steps... walked up them... and then found our way to a metro stop to get back to the hotel... every single time we road the metro in Rome it was insanely packed! Not sure how the locals deal with it!
NEXT UP : DAY 2 VATICAN MUSEUM
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