Russell Crowe was no where in sight.....

Time for the Coliseum.  I've wanted to see the Coliseum since I was in the 9th grade.  Life got in the way and then I discovered Paris, but here I finally am, ready to explore the structure that got me interested in becoming a Latin teacher (just when Latin when out of favor in the schools, unfortunately :-(  )

The tour was again very organized by Viator.  Smallish group (25 of us), all wearing headphones, so the noise level was under control instead of having 20 or so tour guides yelling over one another.  And at 10am, the place was awash in many small tour groups dotted all over the place.  But still, the Coliseum was impressive and you didn't feel crowded in or cheated out of getting a good view of everything.

Sadly, much of the Coliseum was mined for its travertine and metal to build other structures over the years.  That's why there are so many potholes in the sides and why so much of it is exposed.  But you still can get an idea of what it must have been like and the enormity of the place:

They estimate that the lower level, underneath the staging platform, employed about 360 people operating the trap doors and elevators that brought the animals and/or gladiators up to the stage level:

After the Coliseum, the tour took us to the remains of the Roman Forum

& a walk up the Palatine Hill, where Rome was found a couple thousand years ago.  A thrill for this old Latin major.

After the tour, we went in search of a local restaurant that the tour guide said was good.  Said "it's where I take my family", so we knew we were in for a typical local meal.  And it was.  It was crowded with businessmen, which I considered a good sign.  They would know where the good places were to take clients, etc.  And we had a fabulous meal there.

And then walked around some more.  We always do a lot of walking in the cities we visit and in Rome, it seems like everywhere we walk, we run into neighborhoods like this:

                       

 

I love that.  Looking around and knowing you ain't in Kansas anymore.  Many cobblestone streets and small alley ways and then big piazzas.  We encountered this guy on our journeys today:

 

 

Which looks awfully impressive, until you see the point of the square block he's sitting on and know that there is a pole running up his arm and down his back to that square, so he's not really levitating (lordy, I hate when smartasses figure these things out and take away all the mystical stuff).  But he seemed pretty sincere.  And, as they say, once you can fake sincerity, you've got it made.

 

The streets we walked on also had several stores that catered to up-and-coming priests:  loaded with vestments of varying colors -- mostly purple & white -- and chalices and urns to hold the communion wafers and even communion wafers!  And communion wine!

 

 

 

I had no idea you could just go into a store and get this stuff.  I'm not sure where I thought you got them, but still....  Fascinating stuff.

 

Other thoughts of Rome:

 

* The subway cars are monstrously over-crowded.  Seriously.  You get on and you can not turn around.  And people just push to make it into the car.  On the upside, we have had some nice conversations that way.  Gene almost got pick-pocketed as he got on the subway, but a local Rome guy stopped this young teenage girl from putting her had in his jacket pocket and she quickly ran off the subway.  For the record, she would have gotten a plastic spoon from the gelato store and a crumpled up napkin.  Gene has his money in a money belt under his t-shirt.

* The weather has been very cooperative.  Last week, rain was predicted for Monday and Tuesday and instead, we have had only partly cloudy yesterday and today was even a little hot in the sun.  2 more days and we can officially declare ourselves charmed.  But this isn't Phoenix, so we still could wind up using our umbrellas.

*  This place is crawling with teenagers this week, mostly either Italian or Japanese.  They are well behaved.  Noisy, but well-behaved.  A lot of schools have brought their students over here; must be spring break.  A lot of people who write or film travel advice stuff need to come over periodically and live like regular tourists, because they'll mention that a tourist spot like the Spanish Steps is a wonderful place to visit, but they should also mention that sometimes it will look like this:

Yes, it was still fun and the view from the top (of course we walked up; would you expect less of us?) is great and that brick building in the upper left corner is a wonderful tea shop that's been in existence since 1893 and where I bought some chai tea I can't wait to try.  But that is a lot of people.  I'm not sure what they were all waiting for.  You can't see the city lights come on at sunset, like at Sacre Coeur. 

We got back to our apartment early tonight and stayed in.  We are starting to wind down, as we usually do on these treks.  Tomorrow is a "free" day.  Not sure where we'll go.  We've hit so many of the top attractions.  I still want to check out a typical Rome department store, so we'll see.  Probably do a lot of packing because Thursday we'll be gone to Pompeii all day.

Steps today:  14,882
Total:            144,692