Rome day 1

 

Inside the Colosseum

We took the train into Rome our first morning. It only cost 1€ and it was about a 30 min ride. Bargain! (I know I say 'bargain' a lot and one might be thinking that our trip has been cheaper than we thought. This is not so sadly. With the expensive tolls and massive amounts of European chocolate required we are just about on target.) We got onto the train not sure when to get off to get to our first stop, the Colosseum! I waited as Nathan walked along the train listening for someone speaking English. He couldn't hear anyone speaking it but he did hear something tell him to talk to a certain woman. He took a chance, and asked her if she knew English. She did! She began telling him how to get there when other people began to join in, trying to help. Most didn't speak English so she translated them for Nathan. After turning some woman down who offered to have us follow her around Rome, we followed one of their directions and made it to the Colosseum. It was right next to the underground. It was amazing!

This was the one place Nathan was really excited to see, you may even call it his Eiffel Tower :) First thing we did was go souvenir crazy. There are so many vendors selling little things around all the big tourist spots. We bought a bracelet for me, it has a picture of the Colosseum and says I heart Roma! We also got a magnet of the Colosseum for 2€, and 10 postcards for 1€! I know what you are thinking... Bargain! :)

The line was so long to get in if you just want to walk around it. We wanted the audio tour so we skipped the hour long line and payed 5 Euros more to listen to the audio. Worth it to pay the money just to skip the line, or queue, as some people might say. :) The inside was just amazing! The stadium was really well thought out. They had numbered sections to sit in just like we do now. It is crazy to see this place in real life and think about how many people were killed here in the craziest ways. Death by hippo! Dang!

Laying on an ancient Roman pillar

Right next to the Colosseum is a section of ancient Rome that has been preserved. We were able to walk around this pretty massive section of Rome that has always just been there. It had these cool Roman looking trees, thousands of carved stones, pieces of old columns and things just lying about. It was so interesting to be somewhere truly ancient!

Panthenon

We got lost, yet again, trying to get out of ancient Rome. When we finally made it out we decided the Metro was useless, they were no where near any tourist spots, so we walked! I am so glad we did. We walked by some of the coolest things. We didn't always know what the places were called, only that they were amazing. The whole city is just adorable and old. We went into the Panthenon. It was this cool circular church that has a huge hole in the ceiling. I wonder what they do when it rains?

Fountain and Obelisk

We then made it to a square that had thousands of artist painting and selling their artwork. There was of course a huge fountain and obleisk in the center. I think every important building or place in Rome has a fountain and oblesisk in front. Here we stopped for some gelato. The man outside his shop claimed that he had the best gelati in the universe. Well who can pass that up?! It was really really good, but we soon found out how outrageous his claim was because we stumbled upon hundreds of other gelati shops soon after.


One of our favorite parts of the day was walking down this tiny street. It had lots of really cool specialty shops on the cute cobblestone road. We felt like locals just out for a walk. The buildings were so tall on either side it was almost claustraphobic. It was pretty fun. We took that road to Castle Saint Angelo. It's a really interesting building, almost just like one big castle tower. On the bridge leading to it we saw the locks that Micol was telling us about in Como. She said that a movie started the tradition that young couples come to the bridge with a lock. They write their names on both sides of the lock and lock it to the bridge wall and throw the key into the river symboling that they will be together forever. I am a bit of a romantic so I wanted to come back at sunset the next day and do it because we didn't have time to do it now. We were on our way to the Vatican!

Locks on the bridge

 We walked over to the Vatican and just stood in the square in front of it that of course had a fountain and oblisk. Love those things. We just looked at the outside because of another forever long line to get inside. We decided to go in first thing the next day. Walking around Rome all day made us all tuckered out so we headed for the train station. We rode back having finished our first day in the Eternal City!