Rome. We’ve all heard so much about it, and seen lots of pictures, right? In reality we were absolutely BLOWN AWAY. We had literally NO idea of the extent and grandeur of this place. It is huge, and expansive, and utterly breathtaking to be able to walk in amongst buildings on stones that were laid by Roman hands 2000 years ago.

The day started with a walk to the Metro station, where we saw one of the many ways you can park a Smart Car.

Is this really Smart?

On the train we were treated to a violinist serenading the cars with some impressive music. Gary got a video of him, and you should be able to watch it below. It was pretty cool.

When we got the the Colosseum there were of course a million people there, including a few Roman Centurions in full uniform. We headed over to the “bagglietto” office to buy tickets and got accosted by a young man speaking fairly fluent English. He offered us a full English tour of the Colosseum plus the Roman Forum plus skipping the 2h line waiting to get in plus then being able to wander around inside to our heart’s content for 50 Euro. We knew we were dealing with “scalpers” of some sort, but it was a bargain and we went for it. In the end we had zero regrets about spending the money. The tour was fun and informative, and what we saw was breathtaking.

We began with the Colosseum itself…

This incredible structure once seated 50,000 spectators at Roman games. The outer structure is pockmarked with holes that once housed the iron pins the Romans used to hold the blocks together. These pins were stolen in Medieval times because they wanted the metal. Several earthquakes have struck over the centuries and knocked part of the outer walls down, and it turns out that the Popes took to stealing the interior marble facing from the Colosseum for the decoration of the Basilica of St. Peter. Mussolini and the Nazis also managed to get their digs in on this structure. In spite of all of that there is a lot of the original structure still intact. Here you can see the little boxes they used to hold caged lions for the games. The floors of the cages were lifted up on winches to bring the animals up through trap doors in the floor and into the arena for the Gladiators to fight.

The bowels of the Colosseum.

And by the way they believe there were surprisingly few Gladiators actually killed here, although they did execute criminals here, and probably some Christians early on, and the animals were universally killed and eaten. It was a brutal place. The side that still stands has 3 levels of seating and rooms for various purposes. The men of Rome sat in the bleacher seats. The women were forced to stand on the upper floors. They also apparently had rooms up there that made use of those women and were referred to as “fornicariums.” Use your imagination. Today, it just makes a good backdrop for a selfie.

Selfie backdrop

After the Colosseum it was on to the rest of the area. We walked for a couple of hours and took about 340 pictures. There was so much to see! Together in this area are Palatine Hill (the site of the founding of Rome nearly 700 years before Christ), the Senate, the Imperial Palaces of the Caesars, the Forum, and various temples, arenas, shops, rooms, fountains, roads, political offices, and all the other little places that make up any city of 1.5 million people. These buildings were built to last with walls several feet thick filled with concrete and stone or brick, and veneered on the outside with brick, then either plaster and/or marble. The marble has all been stolen, but many of the buildings remain. I’ll let some pictures do some talking for me…

Imperial Palace with arena

View from one end of the Forum

Several temples and buildings

Roman temple spared destruction by converting to a church

Temple of Romulus also converted to a church and spared.

Gary with the Forum in the background

Hopefully you can get the idea of how awe-inspiring this place was.

After our long walk we were ready for a late lunch, and our requisite picture with an ancient building in the background (this time a stranger took the photo so we were both in it).

Lunch picture with an ancient ruin in the background

We finally peeled ourselves away and hopped back onto the train to find our car, and headed on south to Naples (Napoli). On the way we got to see Mt. Vesuvius, which we plan to climb tomorrow (provided it doesn’t erupt).

Gee, where’s the top of this volcano?

We landed another good pick for our hotel. It’s a resort hotel in the “off season” and therefore they have rooms for us and lower rates. At first they offered us a 45 Euro room with a view of an interior hallway, then they managed to talk us into a 120 Euro suite that is just gorgeous. It’s our honeymoon, after all! So here is where we are sitting and writing tonight’s blog.

Our grandiose hotel room.

And now it’s bedtime once again.