The plan was to wake up at 8:00am today and make the most of our first full day here. But I didn’t realized that our phones were still set to Turkish time (an hour ahead) so we ended up getting up at 7:00! I was thrilled, Reuben not so much :/ but we headed down to an amazing breakfast spread! And the cappuccino! I felt like I had died and gone to heaven! Breakfast is the one meal in Turkey that isn’t that great, I mean unless you’re going to get a börek, but those are too unhealthy to be a daily thing.
Peace, Love and Cappuccino.
Grappa and Trevi
Anyway we quickly headed to the Trevi Fountain! Again my second time here but it was even more beautiful and breath taking than I remembered. I guess the wish thing is true…does that mean I have one more trip to Rome in store?? This trip was especially memorable because today was the day of the Italy-Wales rugby match and for some reason all the Wales fans dress up in crazy Halloween costumes for the game! We saw some at breakfast but didn’t realize who they were until we got to the Trevi Fountain and saw like twenty of them! The fountain was even more beautiful than I remembered it. I have to keep pinching myself, I feel so lucky to be able to see all of these things and do all of this unbelievable stuff in such a short period of time!
Bellisima!
We had to take the cheesy throwing the coin in picture!
<3
Coloseo, Palantino and Forum Romana
This is where our Roma pass really came in handy. If I haven’t said this already that was probably the best 25 euro I spent while I was here. It includes free and unlimited public transportation for 3 days, and free entry into two museums or archaeological sites. Lucky for me the Coloseo, Palantino and Forum Romana were all grouped into one so they only counted as one entry. I’m not too sure why or how that worked but hey, I’m not complaining! So the pass allowed us to skip the ridiculous line! I guess because it was a Saturday it was even worse but the line just to buy tickets was two hours long…with the Roma pass we got in the coliseum in about 5 minutes.
It was incredible, even bigger than I remembered! Reuben really liked it too, of course the most he got out of all the history was that gladiators used to fight to the death. Now he’s obsessed with Russell Crowe.
Reuben's new goal = Become a Gladiator
Afterwards we were stopped by some “gladiators” who were dying to have their picture taken with us! They were really funny and Reuben got some great shots…even though they haggled us for 5 euro afterwards ☹
"Princess you have juicy melons. Let the prince enjoy!"
The Palantino was cool but without a tour guide/audio guide it was hard to enjoy. All of the ruins were literally 5-6 feet tall so you couldn’t really tell what anything was. But seeing the ruins of Augustus Caesar’s house was really cool!
The Roman Forum was AMAZING! I might even like it more than the coliseum but then again I’m a huge poli nerd ☺ It’s just so incredible to see a place that has withstood thousands of years. Before we got to Rome I was reading a blog about the Roman Forum and the guy who wrote it talked about walking around there wondering if Caesar walked on the same bricks and I couldn’t help but thinking the same thing. It’s one thing to see these places in movies and learn about them in school but being there and witnessing everything on your own is so different.
View from the new level ground. It blows my mind how the entire city was build above all this.
My attempt at being artsy. Look at little Reuben in the corner!
Cristo Salvatore
After those sights we were exhausted and really just wanted to wander into a non-touristy part of town and get some cappuccino. We ended up hopping on a random bus and getting off a random stop hoping for the best and when we got off the bus we were in front of a HUGE church. And it had massive statues of all the apostles on top of it. I hadn’t read anything about this church but I figured it was worth checking out. So we wandered in and found out that this church was given to Rome in the 1300s from Constantinople (Yeah Turks!) and is considered the mother of all other churches in Rome…why? Well I’m not exactly sure but that’s what the inscription says in Latin. The coolest part of this church was all the statues they had inside and a gold plated sculpture of the Last Supper. It was absolutely beautiful!
Outside view of the Church
This has to be one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen
Hallway with marble statues of all the Apostles and some Saints
Pizza and Bira
After seeing the church we were exhausted. Like for real. So we headed back to Flaminio to go to the hotel to nap. Little did we know (silly Americans!) the time we were trying to get on the tram was the same time that the Rugby match let out eeeek! The tram was packed packed packed, so we decided to walk, simple solution right? But no. The street was packed too I got checked so many times we decided to wait it out for a while and stumbled upon a small restaurant that had a 5 euro deal for a massive slice of pizza and a huge Italian beer yum! Well after that we were pretty much out of commission for the rest of the night and just went to the hotel and chilled/ went to bed early! Long day ahead at the Vatican tomorrow anyway ☺
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