Day 7--Rome

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We had a 6:30 train taking us from Venice to Rome. For the beginning of the trip we thought we lucked out and had no one sitting next to us at the table we were at. Though eventually 2 people showed up and we had to share the space. We were able to take a few pictures of the Italian country side but we both were sleeping for a good portion of the ride.
When we got to Rome our room wasn’t ready yet but we were able to drop off our bags. We found the street our hotel was on easily enough but it took a few attempts to actually find the hotel itself. You have to ring the bell to be let into the hotel and it looks like it’s part of an apartment complex. We dropped off our bags and set off to find the many things we wanted to see.
We went out looking for what transportation we wanted to use for the day and decided on one of about 8 hop-on-hop-off buses. We got on the bus and started taking pictures of the city as we passed things—which was significantly harder than the bus in Dublin or the water-bus in Venice because of the bumpy streets. The first stop we got off at was for Vatican City, We found the line to enter the basilica and decided to try either later today or early tomorrow because the line was huge. We stuck around Vatican City for awhile taking pictures of everything—that was on the outside that is. We got back on the bus so we could find our next attraction to see. This ended up being Fontana di Trevi.
On the way to the fountain we saw a tower depicting the story of Marcus Aralias. After getting a few pictures we finally found a pharmacy that carried really expensive sunblock—but we needed it so had to get it. After applying the sunblock we used one of the many small fountains that allowed water to run and into the street—we assumed they were for hand washing but we’re not too sure.
From there we preceded to the Pantheon. There we were able to go inside and get a few pictures of the inside. This is also where Justin started talking about the movie Angels and Demons—talking about a movie I have not yet seen but want to. We walked to the site where Julius Caesar was killed. This site is one of the oldest archeological dig sites that…..unfortunately we can’t remember what the that was.
The Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II was our next walking stop. There we climbed the steps of its neighbor Campidoglil. Then we attempted to walk through the Roman Forum but found out we were at the exit ended and had to walk all the way around it to be able to do so. When we finally reached the bottom of the forum we decided to go to the Coliseum instead. However, we were unable to pass through the metal detectors because we had disposable razors from purchasing them earlier. At that point we decided to go back to our hotel and officially check in and drop off the disposable razors so we could actually get into the Coliseum.
Before the Coliseum we went to the San Pietro in Vencoli. Here was one of Michelangelo’s famous statues—unfortunately we were not able to understand which one but we saw it and took pictures anyways. Next we went to the Coliseum we were able to explore the upper and lower deck. It’s too bad the dungeons are closed off to the public for safety reasons because that would be cool to see. The ticket into the Coliseum included entry into the Roman Forums but when we arrived at the entrance we were about a minute too late to get in. So we will be making a stop at the Roman Forums in the morning before heading to Florence.
We then got back on the hop-on-hop-off bus to ride it around to see the other sites we hadn’t yet gone to before the bus route ended for the day. We saw the Archo de Constintino near the Coliseum. There was also an old aquaduct to be seen near the Palitino, Circo Massimo which was once used for chariot races, Castel sant’angelo—to this Justin again started talking about Angels and Demons—we also went by Arapacis which is an alter completely encompassed by a glass building. You are still able to go see the alter but the glass is there to protect it. We got off the bus at Piazza del Popolo. In this piazza there were fountains and statues. After a few minutes we returned to the bus stop and continued our ride.
Once back on the bus we saw Fontana del Tritone. Then continued on to see the Piazza della Repubblica and ended our bus ride there. We got dinner of McDonalds for something quick to eat before heading to the subway to go to the Trinita dei Monti. This is apparently a very popular place to hang out at night. After this we went back to the hotel for a little while before heading to the Coliseum to see it at night.
After which we decided to head back to the hotel to get some sleep and right about our daily activities because we did not want to get wine or anything to eat.