Roma, Day III

Today is my third and last official day in Roma. Yiting and Rosie finally joined us on our grand adventure to the Roman ruins, including the Forum, Palatine, and Colosseum. The area was another metro ride from the train station to get to, but that wasn't a problem. Walking out of the metro station, you just look up and looming over you is the Colosseum. It's quite the impressive sight, and that's just from the outside. But first, after reading the signs and seeing the massive line to get into the Colosseum, we walked 100 yards down the path, past the Arch of Constantine, which is impressive itself, to the entrance to the Palatine, the Roman ruins on Palatine Hill, one of Roma's original seven hills. Getting in took about half an hour, not even, and it was much quicker than waiting to get into the Colosseum – plus the tickets got us into both. It's amazing that people don't read signs and see that seeing less popular attractions first often let you get into the big sights quickly and easily. We spent a long time walking through those ruins, which are pretty incredible. Ruins of buildings, pillars, and pits are everywhere. The weather was great too, which made walking around ruins outdoors very enjoyable.

After exploring the Palatine, we wandered down the hill into the ruins of the Roman Forum, which was amazing. The ruins of buildings, the intact temples, the Arch of Nero, and just the ability to look around and picture what used to stand there thousands of years ago is awe-inspiring. We walked around both these areas for about two or so hours, and we then walked a little ways out of the ruins to go to a little cart and get lunch, sit on the steps nearby to eat, and then get ice cream at the store next to us. (They are everywhere.) After lunch, we walked back down and went to the Colosseum.

The Colosseum is obviously quite amazing. I'm not sure how many pictures I took in there, but it was quite a lot. Getting in was easy, and I can actually say I got to walk around inside of the Colosseum. For a structure built two thousand years ago, it's condition is amazing. Kudos to Roman architecture. Walking around the upper rings, you can see the areas where people would have sat, the lower boxes, and of course the arena floor and catacombs. Half the floor is covered by a modern wooden floor, designed to show what it would have looked like. The rest is left uncovered, showing the catacombs below the Colosseum, which are really cool to see. Overall, the Colosseum is one of the most impressive buildings I've seen, on par with the Vatican City for beauty. Alas, it was our last day in Roma, and the next day we took an early morning train ride to Firenze. I am very happy with the way our Roma trip turned out. It is an incredible city!