So I've been back in Maine for just over three weeks and haven't officially concluded my Italy trip here on the blog.
My last day in Italy was a beautiful Saturday in Rome, sunny and 75F. Woke up early and planned to take the train or metro to the Coliseum area. I started walking from my hotel (near Piazza Barberini/Via Veneto) around 8AM and pretty much kept walking all day. Stopped at almost every old church I ran into, along with anything else that piqued my interest. Since it's been a while, my memory is not so good, so forgive me for my vague-ness.
The Basilica in the Piazza Republica. Lots of art and architecture designed by Michaelangelo. Also, they had a huge organ!
And the Coliseum was definitely something to see. The line to do the tour had like a two hour wait, so I kept walking, although I regret it now.
Original stone roads, crazy to think how many Roman soldiers walked on these stones before conquering Europe back in the day.
Circus Maximus. It was completely open and you could walk all over the place. Like the Coliseum, so many people fought here and lost their lives for sport. Trying to imagine the crowd of three hundred thousand people surrounding the place back in the day is really mind-blowing.
The ruins of the Roman Forum. I waited 25 minutes in line to get into the archeological ruins and it didn't move. With roughly 1000 people ahead of me, I took off and decided to walk all the way around the ruins. Got some nice photos and found a great food market too.
Romulus and Remus, very famous statue near the Capitol.
And I'm pretty sure this was the Capitol building. This place was Ginourmous, and breathtaking. This picture really doesn't do it justice.
Shortly after taking the above picture, I ran into L' Antica Birreria Peroni, THE original Italian beer hall. Huge old place, extremely loud, tons of people and good food. Great bread, fantastic Bucatini all’Amatriciana (thick spaghetti, guanciale, tomato and hot peppers), and even better beer.
After lunch it was about 3PM, and I started to make my way back towards my hotel which took quite a while. Stopped here and there, did some shopping and more sightseeing.
After packing and a short rest, I headed out to dinner at an un-named high end restaurant with great reviews. Honestly it was probably one of the worst meals I've ever had. But, considering that I had spent the prior two weeks eating some of the best food in the world, I didn't really care. Hell, I even cooked some of it.
