Post #26: Rome, Day 2

Our room Nicolas Inn from across the street
Our first view of the Colisseum as we walked down the alley.
We found the Angel Tours umbrella.
The Colisseum (what more can I say)
An Arch de Triumphe (sp?) on the way to the forum.

So how many thousands of people over the years have tread on these stones?

Looking back at the Colisseum as we headed to the Forum.
Inside the forum...listening intently to our guide.
More of the Forum
And more
Meanwhile, back at the Colisseum...

We got to take the line on the left...phew!
Our first 'breath taking' view of the inside of the Colisseum.
Walking around to get a better view.
Yup, MUCH better....

Our guide at work with her captive audience.

So how do you know when to stop taking pictures?
This is where the ruler would have sat to give thumbs up or thumbs down.
I'd say thumbs up for these two (our guide had this cool book with transparencies)
Yes, I was there.
Rich and Lynn doing what tourists do.

More
And more...from the outside.
and more
OK, this was the last photo of the Colisseum I took.
Where we had lunch

Our table with owner in the background.
What a spread of food. The locals really loved it.
The owner took our picture.
The owner added all this stuff for me to add to my dessert picture.

Walking back to the train station.

The front of Termini station in Rome.
Inside showing the schedules.
A mini-shopping center inside as well.
On the train

About to go through security and finalize our visit to Rome.

Blog starts here:

Slept OK.
Our room was right on a major road, so there was some noise
Had left ear plugs on ship
The room was cute and efficient. Just what we needed!
And of course Melissa and Francois made it truly perfect.
They only have four rooms at the Inn
But it is really a great little place and in a perfect location.
We had a breakfast coupon for a little place just a few doors down.
It was sort of like a small Italian Starbucks
(sorry to demean it, but I had to make a point somehow)
It was full of Italians (Ya Think!) getting their caffeine fix
We selected some pastries and orange juice
I had a cappuchino, and JB had a hot chocolate
She had heard about Italian hot chocolates from watching
Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel
Very thick and rich, not at all like domestic hot chocolate.
We ate on sidewalk…well, on tables and chairs on the sidewalk
At that hour lots of commuters and school kids
We then met Rich and Lynn and headed to our final Roman tour
The Coliseum and the Roman Forum
We only had to walk all of about ½ a mile,
As we entered to the alley across from the hotel
We could see the Coliseum…just that close
We rendezvoused with our Angels’ guide
Just outside the Coliseum Metro station (upper level)
She was very nice and knowledgeable…more like Jimmy than Alex
We headed into the Metro and down to the ground level
Then crossed the street to the Coliseum (life threatening crossing that street)
The closer we got the bigger it got (I know…duh!)
Outside very touristy with posing gladiators (1 Euro for a picture)
and many vendors (hmmm, I don’t we bought anything from them)
After some discussion outside we moved on to the Forum
That is quite a place, but after Ephesus and Pompeii
I was getting a little ‘over filled’ with historical stuff
And what different people did, how they did it, and where they did it
And how they did it to, or had it done to by (you get the point) others
I wanted the Coliseum…size does matter!
In the Forum we bought our Coliseum ticket
Our guide called it a ‘secret’ booth.
No line, and we would by-pass the lines at the Coliseum
Boy was she right! As we just walked right in
(through another security check like at the Vatican)
They were forming up the tickets buyers in lines 4 wide
Long wide lines…and we just ‘zipped’ by.
We then took a ‘lift’ to the upper level (no, not from the ‘Ancients’)
And we then walked out into the expansiveness of the Coliseum
We are accustomed to Candlestick, PacBell Park (or whatever)
And Cal’s Memorial stadium,
but to have their size back in that era…impressive, truly impressive
You can see it on TV, and think you comprehend…but you can’t
Boy were those Romans the engineers or what?!?
And then to think they brought in the wild animals to fight
Well, I guess they were barbarians as well.
We stopped at several locations with great narrative from our guide
She had nifty little book that had transparency overlays
So we could see how it would have looked before it was ‘stripped’
Hard to believe someone could have ‘cannibalized’ the place so much
After saying good-bye to our guide
Walked around some more trying to absorb it all and taking more pix
Looked through some internal museums and then left
Then we went back to Nicolas Inn to ask for lunch recommendations
Melissa recommended a place down the alley across the street
Around the corner…no one but locals would have found it
Or tourists with recommendations
What a fun place
Very down to earth
The owner, his wife, their dog and one other employee (plus the cooks)
The dog barked now and then at passerby’s (passersby?)
The owner was very fun and ‘toyed’ with us a little
We could tell he probably spoke very good English (he understood us 100%)
But he made us use as much Italian as we could (which was not much)
They had quite a layout of antipasto dishes arranged as a buffet…
They all looked fantastic even if we couldn’t tell what they all were
One could have had quite a feast.
We wanted something lighter, so ordered ala carte
The other 3 had Raviolis, but I had muscles and clams in butter/garlic sauce.
If I could have any meal on this whole trip again
(including prime rib and lobster on the ship)
It would be this one. I have NEVER seen so many shells on one plate.
It seemed the others were half finished by the time I was done ‘shelling’
The owner just kept walking by and smiling at me.
We didn’t order dessert, but he brought us four little tarts.
I was taking a picture of them when he brought several large
Plates of cookes and other desserts to embellish the picture…fun.
After a full meal (so much for light)…and a liter and half of wine
we headed out, to head out (bummer)
Picked up our bags from our hotels
And walked back to Termini station
What a hectic place that station is.
Well organized and modern, but VERY busy.
I’m not sure, but I think I saw a train to New York!
(OK, so I exaggerated a little)
But they have 28 or 29 different tracks, so LOTS of trains.
We had exited by side entrance when we arrived,
So hadn’t seen the whole place then
We entered from the front just for the experience…impressive
Found an ATM, then bought our tix (4.5E one way vs the 9 w/BIRG)
The train was sitting in the sun with no air conditioning…VERY HOT
We sat up top to have better views…which was even hotter
Didn’t take many pix as once we started it was nap time!
The air-conditioning was the open windows, so at 120 KPH we were fine.
Walked back to port entrance
Only to get on a hotter shuttle bus.
That’s OK, right to ship is short
We were drained!
Got back to cabin and just vegged out
JB read nad SB downloaded pictures and wrote trip report
Met Rich and Lynn for a drink then dinner
Lamb chops again…oh darn! (only 3 little ones though)
Gede brought an extra plate of them a again…whattaguy!
Everyone at table had had a great time in Rome
Even though we had all done something different
Did not bring my camera to dinner…first time.
Gede did some napkin folding and coin tricks
No camera! Of course!
After dinner it was straight to bed
This is not good for the stomach!
While getting ready for bed,
Another bird flew into our sliding door
It dropped to the balcony floor then got up and flew away
What is up with these birds!?!