This is my first time to use the mobile Blogger app and the toolset does not seem very sophisticated. May be operator error, but for instance I can't figure out how to size and place my pictures...anyway, enjoy.
We took a connecting flight from Austin through Charlotte, North Carolina to Rome. I happened to catch us flying over Nice, France. I was stunned by all these huge black mountains, then I saw cities at the base where the mountains met the Mediterranean, and then I spotted Nice with its unique peninsula.
We got a transfer from the airport to our downtown Rome hotel Duca d'Alba on Via Leonina. We chose this hotel for its great location. It was even better than I thought - the hotel is very quaint with very small rooms by American hotel standards, but a nice room with a window you can open out to the narrow cobblestone street. The windows are doubled so with both closed, the street noise is zero! It is walking distance to the Colloseum, so that's nice, and it's close to the train station Termini.
We were pretty tired when we got to the hotel but decided to bite the bullet and beat the jetlag. we got slices of pizza across the street and headed straight for the Colloseum. Unfortunately, five minutes later it started pouring rain so we headed back the the hotel and took a nap. Two hours later there were no signs of rain and we started over.
We got a hint from Rick Steves to avoid a along ticket line and get combo Roman Forum and Coloseum tickets at the Palantine entrance to the forum. I'm not sure how much time that saved since we were later in the day but we literally had no wait.
The Roman Forum is basically a preserved archeological site which has kept the old city center of Rome protected for a thousand+ years. You can see what's left of many architecturally and socially significant buildings - sometimes just the facade, and for others, just a few remaining columns, but you can get a great feel for the engineering marvels of the day and how opulent and majestic old Rome was.
Everywhere you can see evidence of the use of the arches and columns. Maybe that's why they call it ARCHitecture? Anyway... not only are the arches huge and supporting a lot of weight, but they have a lot of intricate detail on the undersides, just as decorative as the outside. See below picture of the underside of the Arch of Titus.
Another great arch lies between the Forum and the Colosseum - the Arch of Constantine which celebrates Christianity has tributes to many past leaders of Rome.
Then we headed upstairs to get a bird's eye view of the stadium and the subterranean floor build under the stadium floor. The stadium floor was basically a false floor constructed out of wood and covered with sand. Human and animal combatants would perform at this level in front of 50,000 spectators, while below, gladiators would practice, animal trainers would tend to the wild animals, and slaves were kept for battle. The current setup shows a partial false floor, so tourists can see the labyrinth of corridors below the surface.
The Colosseum also had many exhibits showing ancient artifacts. Now I can tell a real Roman bust from the fake one in our hotel. Real ones have no noses, and fake ones do.
Real ancient Roman busts:
Fake one:
We ate dinner at a nice little place on our street highly recommended through Tripadvisor. I think Tripadvisor is the best place to find good eats and this was no exception. Suburra 1930 had some great dishes, cooked up hot and flavorful. Our favorite was the Spaghetti with Clams and Roma tomatoes, but I also liked the Squid and Octopus appetizer and Shellie had pasta with cuttlefish and Fried Baby Fishes - they ate like French Fries.
We ended the night with some awesome Gellato at Gelaterria dell'Angeletto - right by our hotel and 4.5 stars on TA. Now I'm writing the blog, but better get to bed - tomorrow's another big day in Roma.
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