When in Rome...

See! I'm already doing terribly at keeping up with this - but between bad internet connections and lack of time/energy, there really haven't been opportunities to blog! But here we go: June 3rd.......

Some background info: with the clock wrong where we ate lunch the day before and overhearing people complaining about our flight being two hours late, we thought there was a 7 hour difference between here and home versus the actual 6 hour difference (even though we knew it was 6...the evidence just seemed to be overwhelming!). Therefore, we woke up an hour early (completely unaware) and headed out - but wait! They're still serving breakfast?! It should have ended half an hour ago... ah ha got it - and our time difference problem was fixed. (Note: I have come to realize that any time mother travels, she refuses to change her watch from "home" time...so we add a lot)

We bought 2-day hop-on-hop-off bus passes and headed to the Colosseum! AND because we had our Roma Passes...we got to practically skip the huge line to get in :) it reminded us of the awesome trip when my mom had broken her toe and we bypassed all the lines at Disney World because she was in a wheelchair.

The Colosseum was incredible and definitely my favorite part of Rome. It was built in A.D. 80 and could accommodate 50,000 fans ready to watch gladiators battle it out. The Romans were the first to use concrete and the rounded arch, the major engineering feat that allowed the Romans to build such a massive complex and gave the Colosseum its strength to remain standing today.

My dad and I just recently watched a special on the movie "Jumper" that actually filmed in the Colosseum for a few days. Remembering how pissed we were the day before when it wasn't open and how crowded it was this day, I can't figure out how they got permission to have it closed for filming...especially since that movie wasn't even that good. Just a couple more facts: animals would be raised by elevators and enter the arena through trapped doors (which you can see because the floor is missing); a canopy provided shade for the upper deck, but because there was a strict class system, poor women got the worst seats at the very top...with the shade!; and blood from the killings was bottled and sold because drinking it was believed to cure epilepsy. Yuck.

From there, we went to the Palatine Hill and Roman Forum that housed temples, basilicas, and arches along with the place where Julius Caesar was burned, the hall of justice where all the dads were kept (sorry, I meant lawyers), and real 40 year-old virgins (not Steve Carell). Six Vestal Virgins (females) were chosen from noble families, before the age of 10, to serve a 30 year term of abstinence while tending to the sacred flame in the Temple of Vesta - as long as the sacred flame burned, Rome would stand. If a Vestal Virgin wasn't so virginal...she was buried alive with a loaf of bread and a lamp.

House of the Vestal Virgins

So after walking around all the amazing ruins and exercising my gluteus maximus to see Circus Maximus (a 2,100 foot long chariot-racing stadium!) among many other sites, we were very hot and tired as you can imagine. We thought we would just ride around on our tour bus...but the road was blocked off because of a protest...what's that Rome? MORE things closed and inconvenient??


Circus Maximus

 So after walking around everywhere to try and find the next bus stop, we stopped for a lunch of assorted cheeses and bread, fresh mixed fruit, and margherita pizza. :) The table next to us had a bottle of white wine for the wife, a bottle of red wine for the husband, and two giant glasses of beer for the son. "They must be German..." So after even more bus mishaps (waited for the 3rd one and had to switch mid-route), we arrived back at the hotel where mother napped and I finally got on the internet! Hooray!

For dinner, we decided to go to Piazza Navona that was rumored to have fun night life. We dined at an outdoor restaurant, Tucci, while listening to a saxaphone/singer duet, watching various street performers, and sitting in front of Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain. We even saw Jack Sparrow again! (But he was gone before we could take pictures with him.) And sorry, Melissa, we could not find the porn star :( boo.

I'm trying to hurry and post more days! Ahhh so behind. Love you guys!