Doing the Caesar Shuffle

Friday, August 6th

I must admit, I'm enjoying this not waking up to an alarm thing. Mike has converted me. We're not sleeping too late...we had breakfast about 8 am...which was made to order by one the owners of our B & B, Santiago...got ready and were out the door about 9:30 am.

All over Rome, there are fountains spewing fresh, cold water. We just took an empty water bottle with us and refilled as we went along. It was great...and so was the water. Matt said it was the best water he ever had.

Santiago suggested we take the bus to the Colosseum, so we could see the city. It was a great suggestion. We got off the bus at Piazza Venezia and walked down to the Colosseum and bypassed the lines cuz I had purchased tickets ahead of time. We spent a while there just marveling at the feat of engineering it was and contemplating the horrifying things that occurred there.

Then we were off to Palatine Hill and the Forum. Walking down the Via Sacre (the main street of the Forum) gave me chills as I imagined the others who walked before me. Did Paul step in this very same place?

After the Forum, we took a peek at Trajan's Forum and then had an expensive, yet mediocre lunch. Don't eat at a restaurant across the street from the Forum...the menus were in English...we should have known better.

Feeling moderately full, we headed back to Piazza Venezia to catch our bus back to the hotel for a nap, stopping to look at Trajan's Column. We caught the correct bus #81, but going the wrong way...so we had an extra long tour of Rome...going to the end of the route and returning all the way to the other end of the route...where our B & B was...about an hour and a half on the bus. It was serendipitous though cuz we saw a variety of things we would never have seen.

One of the things that amazes me about Rome is the sheer multitude of ancient debris scattered around the city. There are pieces of columns everywhere...who knows how old they are...and you are free to just sit on them. I like to wonder about who made this particular column that I am sitting on...a Jewish slave, perhaps, brought back in captivity from the Roman's sack of Jerusalem??

Returning to our room, we slept...Mike woke me up around 7 pm and wanted to go eat...now it was my turn to not want to get up. So, Mike and Matt went and got food and brought it back. We ate in our room and then went back to sleep. Not the most exciting end to the day, but it felt good.