Rome cont. - the Colosseum and more!

After a great rest and breakfast at our hotels we walked down one of the seven hills to the ever famous and most notable monument (IMHO) in Rome - The Colosseum.

 

It was so awesome to be walking up to the Colosseum!

We took Rick's advice and headed to the Palatine Hill entrance to get our tickets where we had zero wait, walked back up the road and surpassed the 1/4 mile long line of ticket buyers to get right inside the Colosseum! In the Colosseum our awesome narrator, Korie, filled us in all of the history and important info that I've captioned in the pictures. It was really impressive to see this 50,000 seat stadium and to use my imagination to picture the battle scenes with gladiators and beasts!

The Arena

We went up to the second level for a great view of the Arch of Constantine, Roman Forum grounds, and a live archaeological dig happening right there.
 

Next we headed over to The Palatine Hill which is the center most of the 7 Hills of Rome and is one of the most ancient parts of the city. 

The Imperial Palace. Horses used to race around the outside.

The hill was once so filled with Emperor Palaces that later Emperors had to build out!  The Palatine hill is where the mythological story of the she-wolf describes the founding of Rome. Sounds funny but read the Wiki-Link, it's pretty good!  From the Hill we could see Circus Maximus and even St. Peters Basilica in the distance.  From there we walked directly down in the Roman Forum.  Walking into the Forum on the large basalt stones was a bit surreal thinking that Caesar Augustus walked on the same ones 2,000 years ago!

We passed the Arch of Titus which is at the head of the Forum and symbolizes Roman victory,

and made our way through the grounds as narrator Korie told us about all of the different temples inside. It's mostly rubble now but it was easy to picture it in it's prime with large white marble buildings and 40' high columns!

The House of the Vestal Virgins (below) took up a very large space and the story behind it I found quite interesting.

The rows of statues depict leading Vestal Virgins - the good ones! 

It was originally a 2 story complex where the Vestal Virgins were chosen from noble families by the age 10 when they took a vow for 30 years and (hopefully!) served her term faithfully.  If she abstained, she was given a large dowry and allowed to marry BUT if she couldn't keep her legs closed she was taken to a crypt, given bread, a lamp and buried alive.  Most suffered the latter fate but the question is...how did they check?!  Honor system?  Word of mouth?  Reputation?!?
 
Through the Forum we walked out into Capitol Hill square which was once the religious and political center of ancient Rome.  The government still resides here. 

Michelangelo's Grand Staircase leading up to Capitol Hill

Later that afternoon we split up, Matt and Korie visited the National Museum and Dave and I did the HoHo under the canopy on the upper level of the bus and giving our feet a break.  That's always a fun way to see the city from a different perspective.  When we hopped off we found our way to the Hard Rock to grab a bite...I know...shocking, but I had to claim my free gift which was a luggage tag and those are always handy.   

Passing the Palace of Justice on the HoHo

Dave at the HRC



After a little rest, a break from the sun and heat we met back up for dinner at Le Lanterna which was just around the corner from our Hotels for a scrumptious Italian dinner!

Mmmmm this Pesto Linguine was beyond delicious!

Since we were all a bit more rested we were able to stay up past dark and headed over to the Trevi to see the lights - it was so pretty, and the air was a bit cooler around the fountain which was nice :) or maybe it was the Gelato that cooled us down?

Trevi Fountain

Gelato round 2 - pistachio, tiramisu, peach, mint& choco - flavors are endless!

We stopped into a few shops, where I found some Christmas ornaments then Dave and I continued on down to the Colosseum again because we just love to see the sights at night! 

Day 2 in Rome was another great success with 27,401 steps, a little sunburn, 3 showers a piece, sore feet but great memories!

Link to 100 more of Rome's 2nd day pictures!