Rome Adventure, Part 2

Time is getting away from me...I will try to be brief so I can catch up this blog a bit!

Saturday morning we all had breakfast together before driving downtown Rome (Italian style again, all of us in the Suburban!) looking for a parking garage across from the hop on, hop off bus terminal.  The garage turned out to have too low of a clearance for us, so we spent a good 20 or 30 minutes driving in circles looking for a place that would work for us.  We finally did get parked and walked to one of the bus stops and got settled in seats on the top deck with our earphones in place to hear the tour guide.

We got off at the Colosseum stop--so exciting to actually be walking toward and then INTO the Colosseum!  Although, knowing the history of the place, I suppose being excited about walking into an arena of death sounds rather macabre!  But what an amazing place to explore.  Sobering, however, to learn more about the many, many deaths--animal and human--that took place for "entertainment."

Mom and Dad with the Arch of Constantinople to the left

Inside with the L family...I guess Zaden and Lucan were running around by Grandma while Grandpa took the picture!

We spent a good amount of time wandering around inside, listening to or reading Rick Steves' audio guide for details.  Then we made our way out and walked over to the Forum, which you can see below, the shot looking out at it from an upper level of the Colosseum.

The top center shows the remains of an old temple; you can see the Arch of Titus peeking above the trees to the left between the columns and the temple.

We shuffled our way through the Forum, feeling rather tired by this time, trying to figure out what various things were with the help of Rick Steves and the posted signs.  Though the kids were starting to drag, they managed to find ways to rest along the way and even be silly!

Charis by the Arch of Titus

A rest stop in the Forum

We found some remarkably intact statues!

At first you see a beautiful shot of Joy and Brian...and then you realize the blue-shirt boy (Tobin) photo-bombing in the background!!

When we finally left the Forum, we realized we had to walk a ways to get to one of the hop-on, hop-off stops.  Oh, were we tired!  We grabbed cheap gelato as we walked to pacify the kids a bit and then gladly collapsed in our seats once the bus arrived.  We enjoyed a briskly cool ride around the city as the bus made its way back to where we had picked it up in the morning.  From there we walked to a restaurant to have a much-anticipated dinner.  The calzones and pizzas were a hit; unfortunately, we were rather disappointed in the pastas (too salty), and Seanin was DONE for the day, so Ted spent most of the dinner wandering around with him in the Ergo, bouncing him and trying to get him to sleep.  Still, food in Rome is food in ROME, so we enjoyed the wrap-up of the day with wonderful friends and family!