Up at 1:45am. Why? Because the people in room 516, which is joined to our room by a common door, obviously fell asleep with the television on. So we got to listen to psycho Italian advertisements until we got the front desk to address it. They did, quite quickly, but we were still up for hours.
We went to breakfast relatively late, around 8:30. We returned back to the room because we were still exhausted from yesterday, and napped for some hours, only leaving at 1:30pm. The weather was supposed to be thunderstormy, but it was actually blazingly sunny, muggy, and yet just as hazy as yesterday. We limped down the Via XX Settembre, past the Piazza della Repubblica, past The Opera Theatre, all the way down to the Colusseum,which dominated the landscape before us. We definitely wanted to go in, and it was the first attraction in which we had to pay to get in. We went through the security line with relative speed, but the queue to buy our 11 Euro tickets took much longer. In fact, we use the word "queue" quite loosely, because it was more of a free for all as the massive hoards converged on the ticket stands. Tickets in hand,we entered through one of the doorways that the spectators would have entered 2000 years ago. The structure is enormous, and so very ancient. An incredible amount of work has been done to stablize the structure and keep it from crumbling more than it already has. There is a tremendous amount of brickwork recently laid; most obviously newer so that the viewer can tell the old from the new. Upstairs, there was a special exhibition on Eros (better known as Cupid) the little God of Love,which was very apt as this is our anniversary trip. There was a great deal of artwork; statuary, pottery, stele's, dedicated to the Roman concept of love.
Leaving the Colusseum, we walked past the Arch of Constantine up into the Roman Forum. When walking past the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II,we came across a Roman woman dripping in blood. She left her packages, quite hysterical, and started running to an alley. At that moment there were about 9 of us who had witnessed it, all tourists from Britain or America. A British woman picked up the packages and walked them over to thewoman in the alley as the police, who had been summoned by her husband, arrived. Apparently, she and her husband had had an argument and he obviously hit her, hard. As the police were there, he continued arguing with the hysterical woman and even poured water from a bottle onto her head. We gave the police a pack of wet wipes, all we had, and continued on our way.
Getting back to the hotel with the last of our energy, we washed then headed back to the same restaurant as yesterday. We were soon joined by a lovely British couple and had a charming conversation throughout dinner.
We took our leave and decided to walk some of our dinner off, while looking for a shop that would sell us Diet Coke, which we really fancied. We ended up in a very unsavory part of town somehow and quickly made our way back to the more safer area of our hotel on Via Flavia.
We went to breakfast relatively late, around 8:30. We returned back to the room because we were still exhausted from yesterday, and napped for some hours, only leaving at 1:30pm. The weather was supposed to be thunderstormy, but it was actually blazingly sunny, muggy, and yet just as hazy as yesterday. We limped down the Via XX Settembre, past the Piazza della Repubblica, past The Opera Theatre, all the way down to the Colusseum,which dominated the landscape before us. We definitely wanted to go in, and it was the first attraction in which we had to pay to get in. We went through the security line with relative speed, but the queue to buy our 11 Euro tickets took much longer. In fact, we use the word "queue" quite loosely, because it was more of a free for all as the massive hoards converged on the ticket stands. Tickets in hand,we entered through one of the doorways that the spectators would have entered 2000 years ago. The structure is enormous, and so very ancient. An incredible amount of work has been done to stablize the structure and keep it from crumbling more than it already has. There is a tremendous amount of brickwork recently laid; most obviously newer so that the viewer can tell the old from the new. Upstairs, there was a special exhibition on Eros (better known as Cupid) the little God of Love,which was very apt as this is our anniversary trip. There was a great deal of artwork; statuary, pottery, stele's, dedicated to the Roman concept of love.
Leaving the Colusseum, we walked past the Arch of Constantine up into the Roman Forum. When walking past the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II,we came across a Roman woman dripping in blood. She left her packages, quite hysterical, and started running to an alley. At that moment there were about 9 of us who had witnessed it, all tourists from Britain or America. A British woman picked up the packages and walked them over to thewoman in the alley as the police, who had been summoned by her husband, arrived. Apparently, she and her husband had had an argument and he obviously hit her, hard. As the police were there, he continued arguing with the hysterical woman and even poured water from a bottle onto her head. We gave the police a pack of wet wipes, all we had, and continued on our way.
Getting back to the hotel with the last of our energy, we washed then headed back to the same restaurant as yesterday. We were soon joined by a lovely British couple and had a charming conversation throughout dinner.
We took our leave and decided to walk some of our dinner off, while looking for a shop that would sell us Diet Coke, which we really fancied. We ended up in a very unsavory part of town somehow and quickly made our way back to the more safer area of our hotel on Via Flavia.
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