We’re winding down on our time in Rome, so we kicked it into high gear for Friday. We got up, showered, then had some breakfast, as usual. We did a few things on the Internet, but then we got our rears in gear and headed out!
We had gotten this thing called the Roma Pass. It’s a card that gives you three days of unlimited public transportation, free entry into your first two places, then discounted entry everywhere else. We used it to take the subway toward the Colosseum. It’s a fairly short trip via Subway.
The Colosseum is pretty much how I remembered it. There were a ton of people outside and a pretty decent line forming. We opted to take a walk around it to see the exterior before trying to go inside. After completing that loop, we headed for the entry line. There was a pretty crazy line already, but as Roma Pass holder, when you go to your two free places, you can just skip the ticket line altogether. It was pretty fun to just walk past this big line.
And considering that a ticket to the Colosseum is 18 Euro anyway, the 25 Euro we paid for each Roma Pass pretty much paid for itself just in line skipping! So, we got into the Colosseum and walked around the inner parts. They had a big exhibit on Nero and little facts about the Colosseum in general. It was pretty interesting. It’s weird that 2000 years ago that thing was the central place in Rome. I don’t know, history is just interesting like that.
Actually, it’s extra weird to see how well/not well it’s held up. See this? This is part of the main structure that doesn’t look all that healthy. Still, it’s standing. That’s something!
The inner sections too a while, so once we completed those, we took a short break before heading to the inside parts. Walking around the inner section next to where the floor used to be was extra neat. You could see down into the tunnels that ran underneath the floor, and if you looked real hard you could even see the places where winches and pulleys used to be. They had a pretty complex mechanical system under the floor to handle ramps and doors and whatnot.
It’s interesting to see what’s happened to the place, at least in terms of preservation efforts. I’m really curious if this is a result of natural weathering, or if they poured asphalt on there to protect the tops from natural weathering.
They even added large metal bands to keep the northern columns together.
We sure enjoyed the place.
After we had our fill of the Colosseum, we went outside. The next order of business was to get the phone book torn. There’s a pretty big story on that, so you’ll have to check out my blog if you’re interested.
Continuing our coverage of the old Rome city center, we headed into the archeological ruins that are next to the Colosseum. The Roma Pass once again did it’s job and we hopped right past the (shorter) line. The archeological ruins cover the homes of famous emperors, the Roman Forum, the temple of Romulus, and a ton of other stuff.
The ruins, at first, weren’t that interesting, but once we got in a bit and to the top of the hill, it really opened up and caught our attention. The hill that the ruins are on actually affords a great view of Rome. It was pretty cool to get up there and see everything.
We walked around the ruins for quite some time. Before doing that though, we had to read the rules for the place.
We made sure not to engage in any form of business.
There were a few oddities that are worth mentioning. On the top of the hill, the ground is super freaky. It’s like someone coated the ground with rubber, then threw dirt on it. It has a distinct rubbery feel, and even compresses like rubber when you step on it! It’s so strange. Also, there was a stage being set up for a concert, so we got to listen to a little music while we were on the top of the ruins!
We walked back down the hill and went through a little museum. We also took another little rest. And now for no reason at all, cool tree picture!
We got to the bottom of the hill and went into the forum. The forum is basically the part of the old city that had the temples and entertainment for the people. It’s also home to the temple of Romulus, which I think is really interesting. OK, the temple itself is dumb, but the doors on it are originals… meaning they’re 1700 years old. That’s old. They don’t look a day over 1400.
The temple:
Then the forum:
After we finished with the forum, we exited the archeological ruins next to the capital building. We were simply starving by this point, so we headed down toward the subway stop and found a restaurant on the way. We both had pizza, since it’s Italy and all.
Once our lunching was lunched, we hopped the subway and took a a few stops to the big Republic Square. It wasn’t all that interesting, mainly because there was a huge road going through it. Hard to have tourists in the same place as cars after all. We walked down one of the nearby roads and found a little tourist site with statues on each corner of a crossroads. Kinda looks like that guy with all the babies on him…
We walked on and ended up at a church. It was a small church and wasn’t ornately decorated, but I think it might be one of my more favorite churches thus far. It had some really nice paintings, and just seemed… “accessible”. I’m not really sure how to describe it. It was more basic and inviting without so much stuff going on that just overloaded your aesthetic brain part.
The church also happened to be at the top of the Spanish Steps, which are supposed to be these famous steps in Rome. They’re what you’d expect: steps.
This is one of those things where I don’t understand why it’s a thing. They just look like steps to me. Steps with a fountain at their base, granted, but still steps.
We hopped the subway back toward the hostel, but got off early and grabbed food from Billa. We then walked back to the hostel and collapsed. We spent the night trying to get more blogging done (but not this blogging, this is done on Saturday morning!), munching on our food, and doing general resting. Joni also found another German position in Richfield, so she worked on the applications for that a bit.
Tomorrow (Saturday – but technically today, because this was written on Saturday), is our last day in Rome. We fly to Spain early Sunday. I guess we’d better get to any other places we want to visit, huh!?
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