Italy: Day 2

After a good night's sleep, and a hearty breakfast at the hotel, we headed out into the cloudy day to see more of Rome.  We started by buying a Roma Pass, which gave us free or discounted entry to major sights, as well as covering metro and bus fares.

We walked around the Victor Emmanuel II monument, commonly referred to as the "Typewriter" or the "Wedding Cake".

We then walked to the Colosseum, which was on the other side of the Roman Forum from the Typewriter.  We skipped the long "buy tickets here" line, and got in the somewhat shorter "Roma Pass" line.  It took awhile to actually GET to the Colosseum, but much less time than if we hadn't bought the passes!

We then walked through the Roman Forum...one of my favorites sites in Rome...so much history...so much dilapidated beauty...so cool!!

After an EXHAUSTING wander through the forum (my feet were SORE!), we found a nice cafe across the street, the Angelino Ai Fori, and enjoyed a late lunch!

When we were finally ready to walk again (slowly and with a slight limp this time), we headed off to find gelato!  We ended up passing the Trevi Fountain again (somehow...we were kind of lost...), and eventually found ourselves at the Piazza Colonna, where we admired the column honoring the feats of Marcus Aurelius...

...and discovered our FAVORITE gelateria of the trip...Di Noto!  Duane had a combination of chocolate and coconut, and I had a refreshing combination of lemon and strawberry.  SO GOOD!!!

It was SO GOOD, in fact, that we both had a SECOND gelato before continuing on.  Duane had mango and I had "just strawberry"...yum!!

We then went back to the hotel to honor the LOVELY custom of the "Italian Siesta"!

After resting for awhile (our FEET specifically!), we decided to head back out and explore a site Duane had read about at which there is an actual pyramid.

We used our Roma Passes and took two different metro lines to get to the Pyramid of Cestius.  It looked really cool, but, unfortunately, is closed to the general public...unless you are part of a twice a week tour group.  We managed to get some good pictures though!

There was also a really cool cemetery next to the pyramid...which, unfortunately, closed 20 minutes before we got there.  We took some more great photoss from outside the walls though!!

 We also took a few photos of the ancient protective walls that once surrounded Rome.

 We ended up back at the pyramid and took more photos...

...then decided that the light was AMAZING at this time of day, so took the metro to the Colosseo stop to get photos of the Colosseum with the sun shining on it.

To wrap up our day, we went back to Trevi Fountain, to see it in illuminated...so beautiful!!

 Me ensuring that we will return to Rome again someday!!

After Trevi, we limped back to the hotel, took lovely showers, and collapsed into bed!  Another FABULOUS day in Rome!!!