Day 24 & 25: Rome

Inside the Colosseum
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Day 24:     Today, we woke up early so that we could head to the Colosseum to do a bit of our own exploring.  When we got there, we saw a tour that was about to head out and with the price of the tour, you could skip the hour to two hour line to get in.  Sounded good to us!  We got to explore a bit of the Colosseum with our incredibly nice guide who told us lots of little things we just didn't know.  We saw where the emperor would sit when he would watch the barbaric games that went on and where the animals were kept.  She also showed us the archway where the gladiators would enter to meet their death.  Very informative!  We then explored the Colosseum more on our own after our tour ended and by the time we were done, it was time for lunch!  We found a cute little restaurant in an alley way-like street that was called Taverna Roma.  It was really really good!  The old man who ran the place was very hospitable!  He laughed, however, when all we ordered was pasta and water.  His busboy came over and asked us "No wine, no salad, no sweet, how come?!"  Well, darn it... we were full!  After a fulfilling meal, we took the metro to Villa Borghese, the incredibly large public park that is the gem of Rome.  It used to belong to the Borghese family, but they went bankrupt and turned it over to the city at the beginning of the 1900s.  We enjoyed ourselves in the hot and nice park for a while (it was so large we needed a map to navigate the park!) and decided it was on to the Spanish Steps next.  We don't know why they call them the Spanish Steps, considering they were funded by and commissioned by the French, but it sure is beautiful!  High steps lead to the top terrace with a beautiful church crowning the top.  It's a climb.. twelve sets of stairs to be exact.. but the view is incredible.  We climbed to the very top and decided we needed a bit of a rest since it was so hot out so we found some shade on the steps and sat to rest on the marble steps.  The shade was cool but marble sure hangs on to that heat and the steps feel hot all the time!  We rested at the steps for what seemed like ever just people watching and then decided it was on to Tiber Island.  To get there, we walked past a barrage of luxury goods stores: Louis, Gucci, Ferragamo, etc.  We ignored all the temptations and found our way to Tiber Island.  A tiny tiny sliver of an island in the middle of the Tiber River.  We didn't really do anything but cross the river at Tiber Island considering there isn't really anything to do.  We did however stop at a GREAT gelatteria!  We crossed the river into the quaint and quieter Trastevere area.  Uneven cobblestone-lined narrow streets and an interesting array of Italian characters.  We even passed a pretty church where a wedding was about to take place.  The area was beautiful.  We saw a little pizzeria among all the tiny houses and decided on dinner.  We each had a good little pizza - TJ had some sort of pizza with peppers and ham and salami and some other stuff and Melissa had the mushroom pizza.  Not bad... not bad at all.  We then decided to head on to the Trevi Fountain once again to see its lights turn on at night.  We ended up sitting and resting at the fountain for quite some time waiting for the sun to set (at around 10 p.m.) and then made a wish... with a toss of a coin with our right hand over our left shoulder as they say to do it.  We then watched the lights come on, took some great pictures, and headed on back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

One of the many treasures of Villa Borghese
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Day 25:      Well, today we didn't do much.  We just explored the Roman streets.  We checked out of our hotel and realized that we were running out of good clean clothes.  We headed on to the laundromat where an impatient man awaited us.  While we waited for our clothes to get cleaned, we found some cheap little breakfast and then headed back to the hotel to drop off our bags since our train ride out to Nice isn't until 9:00 p.m. tonight.  We have been exploring little streets and alleys and again found ourselves at the Spanish Steps.  We also heard of a touristy gelateria that, despite its touristy-ness, serves great gelatto.The gelateria is called Gelateria della Palma.  It's touristy because it is like the Disneyworld of gelaterias.  Two stories, more flavors than one can count, candy lining the walls... we were excited!  We tried an array of flavors and sat down to enjoy our gelato.  We weren't too far from the Pantheon so we decided to eat some lunch (yes, after gelato) around the Piazza Rotonda by the Pantheon.  We knew it would be touristy and expensive so we limited ourselves to the always-cheap and smaller portioned pasta.  All over Italy, we've been noticing guys, usually African, who sell loads and loads of fake name-brand purses.  In Florence, everytime a cop would roll by, they would simply gather up all their purses and as long as the cops didn't outright see a sale going on, they were pretty relaxed about the whole illegal business going on.  However, while we were sitting at the Pantheon, some guys who we believe were undercover cops, came by and raided the guys.  Screams, tug-of-wars over the purses, and fights started to break out in the midst of all that tourist business.  One hawker even split his head open on the cobblestone street.  The police and ambulance came and they even sprayed pepper spray that got on a lot of tourists and bothered Melissa's nose a bit.  One woman got knocked over by one of the hawkers on his attempted escape.  The drama finally died down and we enjoyed the rest of our pasta.  It was definitely a dramatic way to end Rome!!    We now wait for our overnight train tonight to arrive in Nice tomorrow morning.... here we come French Riviera!!