Do as the Romans do…

Well what can I say about Rome hey? Its a bustling, insanely busy city full of tourists and rich in roman history. A lot of which I know nothing about. I was pretty thankful to have my private guide, Mark with me, explaining each place we stopped in at. But I’m getting ahead of myself here…

Today started like any other day, hopped on a tram to head to our first destination. We couldn’t see a place to purchase our tram tickets so we thought, “whatever, its only 20 minutes, we should be fine.” HAH…well only a few stops in, two people get on the tram and start validating tickets. We try to play stupid but of course, it does not work. They kept asking for our documents but we dont have them on us ever when traveling out for the day. I refuse to carry my passport with me and I never think to have my drivers licence either, you just never know! We also dont carry the bank card and credit card together, EVER. They still asked us to write down our information and stupid us didn’t think to give fake names or anything. We walked off the tram with a total of 108 euro fine (160$CND) for not purchasing a 1.50 euro ticket. Well, we wont do that again! Lesson learned.

Today, I would have to guess, was over 30 degrees. I’d say about 35. It was scorching hot and I decided to wear a new shirt I bought the other day in Rimini. Bad idea. It looks thin and breezy but in the heat today it felt like I was wearing a blanket! So today was a struggle for me! Which reminds me, I need to purchase a hat! Either that or shave my head cuz this thick mop just soaks up the heat!

Our first stop was the Colosseum or the Flavian Ampitheatre. It lies in the centre of Rome built in 72 AD of travertine, truff and brick-faced concrete. Back in its time, it was able to hold 50,000 to 80,000 spectators. Its amazing to think this place was used for gladiator battles that shockingly did NOT involve Russel Crowe?! I know! Weird. To walk around it was stunning and definitely a must see if visiting Rome.

We had purchased passes to the Colosseum that also included the amazing Roman Forum. A large walk through of Roman rubble that used to have ancient government buildings. Now excavated, you can walk through amongst all of it taking photos of the free standing roman pillars and brick walls that remain. It was quite a sight! Mark is a huge history buff and this was HIS day!

We had to check out several other sights including the beautiful Trevi Fountain which is so large and extravagant I thought it was a building. Amazing sculptures riding horses and flowing blue water. It is quite possibly the most stunning fountain ive ever seen! We also checked out The Pantheon. A former Roman temple that is now a church. Free entrance by the way which is always a huge plus! The Piazza Navona, an elegant square dating back to the 1st century with a classical fountain, street artists and bars. Such a wonderful atmosphere to walk around and just enjoy all the detail.

Although I have a headache from all that heat today (I think the wine is helping fix it though…) I had such an amazing day. We covered so much ground and clocked in about 30,000 steps for the day! It was nice to get home, relax and wait for my chef in shining armor to make me yet another wonderful meal. Dont be jealous ya’ll.