Day 2 - Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatino

We woke to a cloud filtered sun and the sound of Italy's citizens springing to life. The streets were buzzing with fast conversations and aggressive drivers. From our room, I could here the swirling bustle, and it moved me into their pace.

Sarina was still mostly asleep, so I ventured out into the halls of our hotel [like a good hunter] and searched for some breakfast. Out on a balcony, decorated with a very large umbrella and about half a dozen little tables, our breakfast waited. I grabbed a couple plates and grabbed whatever I thought would fuel us for the day to come.

Sarina was now awake, and happy to find a plate of apple sauce, croissants and Nutella waiting for her. As we had our little morning picknic on the bed, our minds searched for what fun things we could see today. By the time the last croissant was finished, we'd decided to start at the Colosseum and then see what was neighboring it.

First tho, we needed to make an errand to the Vatican to confirm our tickets for the underground Scavi [translation: excavation] Tour.

We got on the Metro and headed off. On our way, a peculiar man boarded at one of the stops. His pants were black leather, his shirt was red silk, and he had a large silver crown for a belt buckle. The punchline didn't arrive until he pealed the bag off his guitar and began to sing out: "...Viva, Las Vegas!..." So, we got a little show as we rumbled along the rails toward Vatican city.

The Vatican was huge and intimidating. Even tho we wanted to hop into a tour and check out the inside, we kept to our directive and searched for the Scavi Offices. After a trip to the visitor desk and conversations with a couple sets of guards, we found it. However, we had come this far just to learn our reservations had been 'misplaced'. Big bummer, but we decided to shake off the disappointment and focus on the other cool things to see in Rome.

From Italy Honeymoon

Next stop was the Colosseum. we had just been there the night before. With a taste of it lingering, we made our way to the ticket booth.



The Colosseum was enormous. The scale of it is certainly lost in most movies I've seen. The walls looked like brick Legos creating a reddish mosaic that seemed to trend of the architecture of that time.

From Italy Honeymoon

Sarina and I stopped to imagine all the brick covered in polished white marble as it was back in it's days of glory. Below we could see the many chambers that were once covered in a giant wooden ceiling, covered in sand, that would make up the floor of the arena.

From Italy Honeymoon

From the second floor we could see the Arco di Constantino and the Foro di Roma. We decided those would be our next stops. on our way out, we happened upon a special exhibit showcasing sculpted portraits relating to Vespasian.

As we walked through the expansive ruins of what used to be the center of royalty, commerce, academia, philosophy and religion, I began to feel humbled. Sure, these ruins resembled brick framed pastures in many cases. However, using the columns, existing structures and drawings of what is believed to be the way it looked at that time; I stood among it all and felt extraordinarily small.

Above the Foro di Roma loomed the ruins of the once magnificent Palatino [palace]. This incredible conglomeration of architectural contributions, spanning generations of emperors hung above like a title wave of brick and marble. Sarina and I made our way through the remains of what was once a palace of marble and guilded adornments that covered over a square mile and stood five floors [including subterranean floors]. Although five floors, each floor was equivalent to about 5-6 of our modern floors; making this palace on the scale of building that are more like 25-30 stories in height. Standing there, looking over railing that peered on to what was the "gym" of the late emperors, I couldn't get over just how indescribable the scale of the palace once was. It felt like they built a thirty story town out of marble, bronze and gold.

From Italy Honeymoon

As we left the Palatino, we came across some of the other notable finds in this ruined center of the world. one of which, the House of the Virgin Vassals was particularly amusing. Priestesses chosen at ages 5-10 for their facial symmetry, body types and quality of teeth. They were raised and groomed to serve 30 year tenures guarding the sacred flames of Rome. Flames that if extinguished would [per superstition] mean the fall of Rome. They were the most lovely, most desired and most unavailable of all of Romes women [more so that the wife of the emperor herself]. During these 30 years, they were charged with protection of the flames AND their purity. If one of these Vassal Virgins was to 'misplace' her virginity, she would be buried alive; and her companion would be beaten till dead. Talk about forbidden fruit.

As we left the ruins, our final good-bye was to that of the Temple of Saturn. This temple was known for many things, including the festival of Saturnalia every December 17th. With the introduction of Christianity, this holiday was 'transformed' into what would be later known as Christmas.

Making our way back to the hotel, we caught sight of some things we'll be sure to return to, including the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II.

To wrap up the day, we took a metro to Barberini. There we found a bank to change euros and a local hole-in-the-wall resturante' that served pizza, pasta and seafood under ceiling painted in tribute to the frescoes we would soon see in the Vattican chapels.