I SHOULD have checked the tour vouchers more thoroughly before we left home! Had I done so, I would have realized that we had to GO somewhere to meet the tour group (we just assumed they'd pick us up at the hotel).
Forty minutes before we were to begin touring the colosseum, I glanced at the "departure point" information, and realized that we were supposed to meet everyone AT THE COLOSSEUM. I yelled at Duane to get out of the bathroom, because we needed to GO!!! I'm surprised we made it out of the room with everything we needed for the day...oy!
We dashed downstairs, ran outside, hailed a taxi, and sped off to the designated starting point. Luckily, the taxi ride was only about 10 minutes long, and we got to the colosseum with FIVE minutes to spare.
As we pulled up, our instructions said to look for a person holding the "Avventure Bellissime" sign near the fountain next to the Colosseum subway stop. We found the subway stop, but COULDN'T find the fountain (expecting something huge, watery, and showy...turned out to be a trickle coming out of the mouth of a TINY figure on the wall of the station)!
We found our group, got broken up into smaller groups (again "small group tours" was part of the reason we chose this company), then headed into the colosseum. In our group was a woman in a colorful red dress...I was really glad she wore it, because, with all the people touring the colosseum, and our penchant for taking lots of photos, we kept losing the group. I eventually just looked for the dress, and was always able to find them. The woman, Mikey, and I started talking (after I told her that I was glad she wore the dress and why). She and her husband Lee, and their teenagers Loren and Derek, ended up being part of the Avventure Bellissime group of people we had on most of our tours. We enjoyed getting to know them as we worked our way through Italy!
Our tour guide at the colosseum was Francesca, and she was AMAZING! I believe she was an art history major, so knew what she was talking about! She brought a children's book with illustrations of the different types of gladiators, a book with plastic overlays entitled "Rome; Then and Now", and did an EXCELLENT job of introducing us to this GORGEOUS landmark!
From the cotton panels that were used to cover the top of the colosseum (which were removed during events by a pulley system), to the stories of the gladiators, to the animals that were sometimes starved and forced to fight captured slaves, to the actual colosseum itself...an informative, and COMPLETELY bloodthirsty overview of this amazing structure!
The colosseum tour was followed by a HOT and CROWDED hike to the nearby forum, which was where the GREAT thinkers and citizens from CENTURIES ago continued the progression of "modern" thought and philosophy, religion, and politics.
It was AMAZING to think of how LONG AGO this area was in it's heyday...literally THOUSANDS of years. Yet structures still stand, and experts have been able to draw reconstructions of what it originally looked like, based on the ruins...AMAZING!
THEN
NOW
After the forum, Francesca put each of us into taxis and directed them to take us to the start of our next tour...Vatican City. Before THAT tour started, she recommended a great little local place, Forno Feliziani.
Very good, local-centered, cafeteria-style place...I had a delicious artichoke and mozzarella pizza!!! We shared our table with Marilyn and Jim, from Canada. They were also with us for MANY of our small group tours throughout Italy, and were really great people!!!!
After a QUICK lunch (and another gelato stop for Duane!), we met the others in our tour group, and entered Vatican City. Vatican City is actually it's own country! The people that work there don't have to pay taxes (even if they live in Rome), and have medical services, shopping, and all sorts of other perks INSIDE the area that comprises the country...CRAZY!!!
Francesca was again our guide, and did another AMAZINGLY informative and interesting tour. We saw INCREDIBLE art, GORGEOUS architecture, and UNBELIEVABLE opulence...it's astounding what's housed in the museums and galleries there!
FOR SURE my favorite part of Vatican City was the fresco-ed ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo. It takes your breath away to actually SEE the artwork that you've looked at for years in pictures. Seeing "The Creation of Adam", in PERSON, was incredible...WOW!!!!!
After the Sistine Chapel (in which photos were not allowed), we headed to the cathedral, which was HUGE, and COLORFUL, and FULL of treasures, both artistic and architectural (including a mummified pope, which is, apparently, how all popes have been interred over the centuries).
After the cathedral, we spent a little time in St. Peter's Square, took a few photos, then headed back to the hotel, via taxi, to relax for awhile (it was REALLY REALLY crowded in Vatican City...the philosophy of their "tourism" board appears to be CRAM AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN INTO WHATEVER SPACE YOU CAN...(some sort of "penance", perhaps??!!)!!!).
Being the "do as much as we can in the shortest time possible" tourists that we are, we soon left again to continue exploring the city. The "official" tours were over for the day, but Duane wanted to see the Pantheon, and I wanted to see Trevi Fountain, so...we did!!!
We walked to the Pantheon, which, luckily, was fairly close to the hotel. The Pantheon was commissioned by Marcus Agrippa in 125 A.D., and served as a temple for ALL of the Roman gods of the time. It was later converted into the basilica of Santa Maria ad Martyres. It also contains the tomb of Raphael, an artist of the Italian Renaissance. It is one of the most complete ancient buildings in the city.
We then walked to the (also luckily close!) Trevi Fountain. Wow! What a gorgeous piece of art, and the only remaining fountain still attached to one of the natural aquaducts running into the city. It was PACKED with people, so we weren't able to get near enough to throw a coin over our left shoulder (once assures a return to Rome, twice assures you will find true love, three times assures marriage).
After enjoying the BEAUTY of the fountain, and dodging MILLIONS of tourists, we found a nice place for dinner called Ristorante Quirino.
It felt REALLY good to sit down for awhile, and the food was excellent!!
After dinner, we walked (or in my case, limped) back to the hotel, and collapsed into bed!
Another AMAZING DAY in Rome!!!!
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