Veni, vidi, vici
After a good long night’s sleep, we woke up feeling much more energized! We decided to start our day by walking to the Colosseum. It’s just a little over a mile from our airbnb, not bad! It was super cool to see it for the first time in person – I knew it was a huge building, but the movies and shows undersell it a bit compared to the reality! Walking under these arches … you could just feel the history beneath your feet and all around you! After fighting through hordes of tourists and persistent street vendors hawking their junk, we were able to get tickets to the Colosseum without too much trouble, and we spent a couple hours exploring what the famed arena had to offer. I think my favorite part was the upper level because you could get a good overview of the area, and I guess in a way, feel like a spectator would have thousands of years ago, sitting in the stadium, watching gladiators fight to the death. Kiley said to me, “imagine how much blood this place has seen” … that’s so true. A sobering thought.
After that, we decided to check out Foro Romano, since it was literally right next door. I dare say I enjoyed this even more than the Colosseum! It’s way bigger than I imagined, and there are so many different areas and bits to look at and marvel at. Human engineering is wild, y’all – especially when it took place thousands of years ago! These Romans were ingenious.
By the time we finished exploring the ruins of the Foro Romano, it was approaching mid-afternoon, and we were HUNGRY! I don’t know if it was spotty signal or whatever, but Google maps kept leading us astray, so we just ended up picking a random place that looked good to us while walking around, and it was definitely a good choice! I decided to try the popular Italian dish, cacio e pepe – literally spaghetti with ‘cheese and pepper’, and Kiley had gricia – pasta with guanciale (pork), pecorino Romano, and black pepper. Both dishes were good, but I think I preferred Kiley’s gricia overall! Our kind waiter gave us bruschetta for free as well! So that was nice.
We then intended to walk back to the airbnb for some rest… but we got distracted by the Musei Capitolini…we decided to walk up the hill and check it out! Ended up being a pretty interesting meander through historical artifacts and art of Rome. Also a chance for us to escape the sun for a bit!! I was sunburned at this point already.
After we finished the museum, we stopped by the grocery store to get cokes (curse our caffeine addiction) and some sunscreen since I forgot to pack some. We got back to the apartment and rested for a bit, then we decided to walk over to the Trevi fountain again to see it at night.
Showers were definitely in order after a hot sweaty day, and we did a bit of laundry. I think tomorrow we’ll try and do the Vatican museums … I want to see the Sistine Chapel! Then maybe the Pantheon on the way back. We’ll see how it goes!
