A day in Ruins (the Roman kind)

The next day (still looking back to Rome here) we woke up bright and early, semi-rested. Two of us were tired from not being able to sleep since the room was really hot, one needed coffee. Guess who? So, we began our trek back towards the phantom Roma Inn, which would have been right next to our first few destinations, the Colosseum, roman forum, and other such lovely places. On our way, we stopped for breakfast. Iced coffee and apple croissants- one of the many many reasons I love Europe. The carb/caffeine combo is a popular breakfast here and I am more than happy with that.

Breakfast at Nero Cafe

Post breakfast, we headed to the pantheon, which was amazingly cool. I wish I could have seen it before the christianization of the roman empire. The Romans would place a statue of the Gods of conquered countries in these little niches around the walls. But when it was converted to a christian structure, the statues were removed. Still, It's beautiful even so. We detoured by the Trevi fountain, yet another of those sites that is so much cooler in person than in pictures.

Post fountain, we headed for the colluseum. Walking towards it, with bits and pieces of the Roman forum to our right, I kept waiting for a painting to fall down, revealing that I was still in Missouri. haha, good trick. But it was real, amazingly. Even when I was touching it, I swear it wasn't real. I mean, the colluseum. Holy cow.

We ended up taking a tour, and our tourguide was a rather swarthy and tan italian man with a strange italian/american combo accent. The tour was interesting (factoid: fights included women fighting midgets) but I was more into jusst soaking up the fact that I was walking on the same ground as the ancient Romans. Swarthy man was not quite as interesting as that.

Our guide in the roman forum, on the other hand, was really vivacious and fun, so that tour was more interesting. Again, walking down the same stone paths that ceaser's murderers would have walked home on was surreal. i feel like I'll end up saying that about a million times. Finally, we did a bit of shopping and ended our day with Sicilian food. Fresh, handmade pasta. Incredible canoli. I'll leave you with that taste in your mouth.