Krista's alarm went off at 730 and the day was off like a shot! Quick showers and out the door headed to a little muffin shop for breakfast.
We were blessed to have a slightly overcast sky and nice breeze. We made our was south and east along the river admiring the architecture of a mix of modern and ancient buildings. We began to approach Palatino and worked our way up 4ge hillside to a spectacular view of Palatine Hill. The ancient ruins and massive columns interspersed everywhere took us back in time to a different world.
We made our way around to the entrance and picked up all our tickets. Our tour had thankfully been postponed from 915 to 1120 and we would need all that time to get where we needed to be.
We were suddenly awestruck my the gigantic Collosseum towering over us as we approached from the west. The closet we got the more immensity we underestimated until you stood beneath it's gates.
The lineup to get in seemed endless but after 30 minutes we had cleared the security gate and found our tour meeting point. We had one hour to spare so began touring the interior.
Walking up the ancient ruins and out into the viewing area looking den upon the arena floor and visualizing scenes from Gladiator and other big Hollywood films was much more vivid now.
We snuck into another tour and listened to some of the history and information and we're glad we spent extra in a guided tour. Like anything, you can wander around and get the experience but a tour will bring that experience even more to life.
We read some of the numerous billboards and pillars of info and even got to handle 2000 year old artifacts.
We sat for a while and had a snack before our tour began at 1120.
Sara our tour guide took us immediately to the basement and showed the elevator used to raise animals and scenery to the arena floor. The scientific engineering present 2000 years ago was pretty amazing. The engineering designed to being water into the facility from elsewhere to clean up the mess and provide nourishment for 60000 people at once was pretty staggering. We tired each of the levels and then got to the highest level accessible. What an amazing view of the inside as well as the outside view of the city.
We ended the tour 90 minutes later and proceeded across the street to a grocery store and bought sandwiches for lunch.
We marched back past the Collosseum to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. We hiked around for hours observing the history and architecture. The amount of history here is unfathomable but with two teenage boys who would rather be catching Pokemòn, we cut our losses and were pleaded they lasted til 3pm.
We walked back through numerous streets stopping at churches, museums and ancient building after ancient building.
The motorbikes and scooters were everywhere and one really needs to pay attention to the traffic.
We toured past the huge Trevi fountain and the majestic Pantheon.
We stopped in at a 'tiny church' in the middle of nowhere and once inside, it rivalled St Josephs Oratory in Montreal! It was HUGE!
Gold and marble everywhere as well as intricate artwork on all the ceilings. It's one amazing artistic thing after another here. But the tourists ... wow... more people than you can imagine - every language imaginable! Eventually we trudged back our condo.
Krista had a couple blisters to tend to and everyone relaxed or had a nap for an hour except Jacob.
We went out for supper at 7 and had several types of spaghetti and meatballs but poor Jacob couldn't keep his eyes open and fell asleep on the table! We finished dessert and were home by 9. Jacob was instantly asleep and the rest of us soon after. Another exciting day!
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