Before I begin the story about the day, Teo and I had a very random experience on the way back this evening. Earlier in the evening, we were at the Pantheon, when some weird looking guy came up to us and told us in broken english that we could take off our shoes because the marble feels great on our feet. He walked off, and sure enough, our curiousity got the best of us and we did test it out. This was probably around 7ish.
On our walk home around 10, we were talking on the Via Imperial Fori towards our hotel, when Teo asks if the guy walking near us was the same guy from the Pantheon. Sure enough, he came up to us and told us that the street feels very nice on your feet if you take off your shoes. Pretty much after that, we booked it home. Weird experience in Rome.
Anyway, today was a very packed (and hot) day. Our hotel is right near the Colisseum, so we went there first, and as it turned out, the line for tickets to get in was not long at all, so we went in. It was absolutely huge and amazing. There was also an exhibit on Eros, the god of love, which was mostly statues and vases depicting different gods as well.
We finished the Colisseum, and saw the Arch De Constantine. Then we crossed the street and walked to the ancient ruins of the Roman Forum. There were a lot of temples and other buildings within, but after a while, it just got confusing. Beautiful and breathtaking, but confusing.
After that, we headed up a huge amount of stairs and ended up at the Capitoline Hill, which consisted of two museums on the sides of the piazza del Campidoglio and the main building in the middle. Because this was on a hill, we had to talk down some more stairs to head down and check out the roads below. We did, however, stop for a gelato break (I had pineapple and it totally reminded me of the stuff we got in PR).
We saw the Il Vittoriano building, the Colonna di Taiano column, as well as some additional forums. But we did end up wandering back through the ruins to the Palatine Hill, which sits above the Roman Forum, and has gardens, more ruins, a maze like area, and an additional museum. Because of the hills, it had amazing views as well.
Lunch consisted of bruschetta, pizza, fruits, and house wine - which was then followed by a nap. But afterwards, we did end up going to the Piazza Navona and saw a beautiful church, and that is when we made our way to the Pantheon. We got to see where Raphael was buried and there is a big hole in the top of the building where the rain comes in and cleans everything out. There are supposed to be holes in the floor for drainage, too, but we did not see them.
(Almost done, so for anybody who has read this far, hang in there). The Trevi Fountain was next, but we heard that a great time to do this was in the evening after the sun had set. So we grabbed dinner at a little restaurant, where the waitress practically forced us to sit down and then continued to check on us every 6 seconds. We did talk to another patron there, who was laughing at what was happening to us. She is from Israel, lives in Rome, and travels all the time. Then, the people on the other side told us they were from California and Connecticut. Awesome. I had the spaghetti carbanara. Mmm.
Back to the Trevi fountain and we got to toss in a coin. Legend is that if you take your right arm and toss a coin in over your left shoulder facing away from the fountain, that means you are going to return to Rome. Curious to see how that is going to work out. We even got to see a proposal there.
Tomorrow is a holiday here in Italy (Liberation Day). Mostly, this means stores will be closed, but the touristy stuff will still be fine. We are planning on going to the Vatican all day with probably about a bajillion other people. Still looking forward to it though...
Okay, all done. Buona Notte!
