Our First Full Day in Rome

We started our first full day in Rome off with a bang and were some of the first in line to see the Colosseum.

What an amazing structure with an amazing history!  It would have really been something to be part of the some 50,000 Roman citizens sitting there watching themselves kill each other and exotic animals!  ...well, maybe not the killing part, but wow - to see something like that in its prime would have been amazing!

When we left the Colosseum around 10, it was already hot and well on its way to being another 36 degree day, so Lindsay bought a tourist parasol, as she had already broken her second set of sunglasses, and "needed shade from the sun".

We used that parasol, however, right away as we moved next door to the Colosseum to Roman Forum, an ancient Roman meeting place and market and place of business (the main city centre).  We purchased a "Roma Pass" when we arrived at the train station the day before, which gave us free transportation for 3 days, and free entrance into two of Rome's museums or archaeological sites (which we planned on using for the Colosseum/Roman Forum and the Bourghese Gallery).

The Roman Forum is a large site with a lot of neat history, including temples, ruins, The Arch of Titus, and the place of Julius Caesar's assassination and cremation.  Again, we had Rick Steves to lead us through it, and saved us lots of money as we didn't feel as though we needed to pay for other tour guides...oh yes, once again, Lindsay wants to remind everyone how hot it was...

From the Roman Forum we wanted to go to a pizza lunch in Trastevere, which is just across the Tiber river, at one of the highest-rated places in all of Rome.  After wandering around, we eventually found "Ghiottoni!!" and sat down for a quick pizza lunch, which was really good.

As we were already in Trastevere, and Rick Steves had an audio tour for it, we decided we better do it!  It was in the heat of the day, around 3pm, so after finishing the tour, which lead us through many neat old buildings, condos, cobblestone streets, and buildings with greenery growing all over them, we made our way back to the B&B to relax and sleep until dinner time.

For dinner, again, we went with a TripAdvisor recommendation, of "La Fata Ignorante", which we had to catch a metro to, as it was a ways away from where we were staying.  The food, once again, was very good.  We each had an appy, a pasta, and a dessert, and it was very nice, although we did have to sit outside as we didn't have reservations, which is normally fine, but in this area of town there were lots of mosquitoes, or something at least that was biting us.

The next day we planned on going to the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica, so we were back in bed around 11pm.