Jetlag had us up on Tuesday before breakfast was served. The weather was wet and rainy but not unexpected since November is the rainiest month in Italy. We decided not to let it keep us from exploring the Colosseum before heading to a scheduled tour of the Vatican. When we got there we were pleasantly surprised that our Roma pass that we got for unlimited use on the subway also got us into the Colosseum.
As an engineer the Colosseum has always been high on my list of must sees. What the Romans could do with arches and concrete is mindblowing. I loved that they had the basement level with the staging area used for the animals and gladiators before they were brought up in ancient elevators to the Colosseum floor. The Romans definitely loved their theatrics.
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| Exterior of the Colosseum |
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| Modern Bracing |
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| Interior View |
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| Artsy shot through the one of the tunnels |
After we were done our self tour of the Colosseum we needed to head across town to the Vatican for a tour we had scheduled for the afternoon. This was actually when the rain really picked up. After a quick lunch we met up with our tour guide and another American couple for our tour. Unfortunately our tour companions were a little bit snobby and kept trying to show up the tour guide which was obnoxious.
We used the same tour company that we had used for the tour of Rome, Roman Empire Tours and we enjoyed both. The Vatican is one of those places where you could spend days and still not see everything. It was nice to have someone show us some of the highlights and still get some of the history.
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| Sculptures |
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| Believe it or not these paintings are 2-D |
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| Map of Italy in the Hall of Maps |
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| Raphael painted himself into the School of Athens |
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Michalengo's Pieta in St. Peter's
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| St Peter's Basilica at night |
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After the tour of the Vatican and wandering through St. Peter's it was still too early for dinner by Italian time so we headed back to the hotel. One of the things that was hard to adjust to in Italy with jetlag is that most restaurants don't even open until 7, so we were often one of the first tables of the night. The husband had read about a restaurant in our neighborhood he wanted to go to and asked the concierge to make us a reservation. Unfortunately it was closed for the season so he asked for a recommendation for a good home cooked Italian meal.
After a few wrong turns, we finally managed to find the restaurant the concierge recommended. After we were sat with our English menus, we realized quickly that everyone there spoke Italian. The place was loud and crowded and we were excited. One of the best signs you're in a good restaurant is when there are no tourists. We got house white wine before ordering lasagna and more spaghetti with pepper and cheese which is common in Rome. After enjoying a our dinner and wine we headed back to the hotel to get some rest since we had been up since dawn!
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| Rome... where wine is cheaper then water.. |
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| Lasagna |
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| Spaghetti |
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