Skipping Christmas Day 13

Today we decided to do the Colosseum and other ruins of Ancient Rome. We had to be careful about planning our time- since we were in Rome on a Sunday / Monday and News Year's Day lots of things were closed. Consequently we pretty much had to do the ruins on Monday, even though it was raining! Our first real rain of the trip.

On our walk to the Colosseum we saw this charming episode. I don't even think the pigeons knew they were being watched. After a while the cat couldn't handle it and began attacking random things on the porch- it was pretty funny.

Ruin viewing on our way to the ruins.

Backside of the Roman Forum.

We made it! There was an epically long line to get into the Colosseum- like a Vatican Museum, two-hours-long line. Fortunately, the previous day at the tourist bureau we had purchased the 'Roma Pass' which let us walk right in! Even though we ended up losing a few euros on the Roma Pass, it was so totally worth it.

Roman graffiti of gladiators.

Panorama taken with my phone.

The Colosseum was wet and very cool. Also very crowded but we were getting used to this. EVERYWHERE we went in Rome was crowded.

Arch of Constantine. In scaffolding. All ruins are covered in scaffolding...

We bought sandwiches at the overpriced food stand. We knew this was not a great idea but there was no other food near by and it was right outside the Roman Forum.

In the Roman Forum! The Roman Forum is a large collection of ruins that 

used to be the center of Ancient Rome. More Info Here.

The pictures make it hard to tell but it was pretty much drizzling the entire time. I had a coat with a hood but Eric had no hood. He was pretty miserable but this was really our only chance to see the ruins so we had to push on. We walked by a trash can that magically had an umbrella sitting on top of it. This is proof of how miserable Eric was in the rain; when he picked up the broken umbrella a used Kleenex fell out and he didn't even care. Eric has an umbrella now!

We actually spent a few hours wandering around the Forum. Once again there was no map and all the interpretative signs were in Italian. We think we saw most of it but some sunshine and a guidebook would have improved our experience. 

Right next to the Forum is the capitol building. It is pretty impressive and made a good detour.

Trajan's Column! I was surprised that there was no protection around it. We couldn't get very close but it was still exciting to see.

We also made it over to Trevi Fountain. There were A LOT of tourists. We didn't feel like fighting the crowds so we did a half hearted visit from the back.

Another panorama with the iPhone. Tons of umbrellas trying to take our our eyes.

We found ourselves by our favorite gelato spot and so popped in for some much needed sugar.

We also bought some tasty non-gelato treats for later. They were also magical.

We still needed dinner and were feeling lazy so we went to the gelato's pizza parlor that was right next to it. This turned out to be maybe the best decision of the whole day. It was amazing!

So many pizza flavors to choose from! The girl told us they make over 100 different pizzas- depends on what ingredients are in season. Very delicious and affordable.

On our way home we walked down a long street that was covered in these rainbow lights. I was not sure if it was for Christmas or New Years but it was still pleasant.