Colosseum, Forum, Catacombs, and More

Oh Connie - This is the rejection look she gave to the street vendors.
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We visited the Colosseum, the Forum, lunch at the train station, the Catacombs, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and dinner at a pizzeria.

Wake up call was for 6am, breakfast at 7am, and bus left the parking lot at 8am.  The bus ride was at least 45 minutes long into the city.  We were traveling at rush hour.

I threw in my coin so that I could insure a return to Rome.

At the colosseum, we met Marizzio, another tour guide.  He led us through the Colosseum.  The seats of the VIPs had names carved into them.  The floor was wood covered with sand.  In Italian or Latin the word for sand is arena.  That is why the word arena is used in English.

The entire group at the Colosseum
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Outside the Colosseum, Rosa took our picture.  We were accosted by street vendors at all times.  Rosa believed that the legit vendors had permits while the illegal vendors were typically on foot, were from Africa, and fled at the sight of the police.

St. Augustine's Victory Arch was outside the Colosseum.  We walked from the Colosseum to the Forum.  It was downhill because Ancient Rome is on lower ground than Imperial Rome and that is even lower than present day Rome.

I needed to insure a return to Rome at the Trevi Fountain
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The Forum led us to Piazza Venezia and the monument of Victor Emmanuel.  The Victor Emmanuel Monument is sometimes called the wedding cake because it is made of all white marble and has statues on top.  The locals also believe that it is ghastly because it obstructs the view of everything else in the city.

The bus picked us up at the steps of the Victor Emmanuel Monument and took us to the Catacombs via the Appian Way.  The catacombs were designed as a place for Christians to bury the dead.  The catacombs went as far down as 4 levels.  I purchased a rosary and some postcards at the gift shop.

The Pantheon, and the sight of my first Italian gelato
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For lunch, our bus driver, Enzo, drove us to the train station.  I ate a salad with fresh mozzarella and a diet coke.  They call diet coke, Coca-Cola Light and it's sold in the .5 liter bottle.

Atfer lunch Enzo drove us to St. Paul's Beyond the Walls.  This is the second largest church in Rome, which means it was significantly less crowded than St. Peter's.  St. Paul's has a mosaic of every Pope on the walls as well as other art.  They have the current pope's illumninated.

Piazza Navona - Our glimpse of the Nightlife
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After St. Paul's, Rosa was going to give us free time but no one had a map.  I inquired about the Pantheon and she led us to the Pantheon through some side streets.  The architecture of the dome of the Pantheon is interesting.  I enjoyed my first gelato in the piazza by the Pantheon.  It was Nutella flavored.  (A flavor we need to make in the states.)

Rosa then took us to see the Trevi Fountain.  I threw in my coin so that I could insure a return to Rome.  I was interest in know more about the found so I sat on the steps of church in the piazza and found that the aqueduct that fills the fountain is the Vergine because a young woman who showed Roman soldiers the spring was a virgin.  The scene is depicted on one of the relief panels.  Also the money thrown in the fountain is given to charity.

St. Paul's beyond the walls
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Note for future visit:  Purchase hand drawn drawings when found.  I passed up some beautiful ones on a side street new the Trevi fountain.

From the Trevi fountain, we walked to the Spanish Steps.  There are 144 steps in all.  The street that they were on has some of the big name shopping like Christian Dior.  We met at the top of the steps.

We walked to dinner.  We ate at a pizzeria.  We were served bread, salad, and an entire pizza for each of us.  There was artichoke prescuto, and cheese of the pizza.  The pizza's crust was so thin and crispy.

At dinner we gave the student the option of spending the evening in the Piazza Navona.  We paid 12 Euros each for the bus and tour guide.  About a dozen students went back to the hotel.  Piazza Navona was oblong shaped with a fountain in the the center.  There were 8-10 cafes that looked out into the piazza.  Darryl, Chris, and I walked around the piazza and viewed the street vendor's merchandise and the street entertainers.  One man was dressed in gold spandex and had a sphinx head covering.  He kept changing his shape. There were also artists drawing portraits from 30 Euros each.  Maggie, Lesley, and Meredith each had their's done.

Darryl, Chris, and I sat down at a cafe that was suggested by my tour book.  Chris and I shared a bottle of Chianti while Darryl had coffee and a piece of almond torte.

Some students were not happy about paying 12 Euros and not having the entertainment thrown at them, but this was their only chance to see nightlife in Rome.  Our hotel was too far for them to visit any other time.  Also, Rosa took some to another piazza that had a free concert.

On the way home, we were entertained by a combination of some more Rome sites lit up at night and some students who enjoyed their cafe visits.

When we got back, we played Euchre and I had my first Magnum Ice Cream bar.  Trying one is a must.