Having a room that faces East, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the city, very special indeed to open your eye's and see the city rise each morning. After some espresso in the room we headed out for a day of taking the sights, sounds and smells of Rome! First stop was a small coffee shop, bakery where Pat and I had yogurt, fruit and some grains for breakfast, this is my typical breakfast at home and it made me happy and ready to go. Our goal today was to walk to the Roman Colosseum enjoy it and then walk back catching as many sights as we can, we are only here for 3 days and need to make the best of it, but without a real agenda, keep it fun.
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Love freshly made Espresso!
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| Pat and Tanya enjoying breakfast |
Our first stop after leaving breakfast is a small market where we stop and enjoy the colors and smells of fresh foods, no purchases as were not heading back to the room for quit a while.
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| Wonderful Colors of the Market |
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| You want Pasta they have it all |
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| Meat Market |
After Leaving our only agenda is to get to the Colosseum and walk the streets seeing as much as we can taking the sights and sounds of Rome. There are so many ruins here, to many to remember but we stop and take them all in, its amazing that after all these years they still stand.
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| The first of Roman Ruins we encounter a wonderful mix of old and new Rome |
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| The Altare della Patria, also known as the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II or Il Vittoriano, is a monument built in honor of Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy |
After walking for nearly an hour we are close to the Colosseum and streets begin to get crowded, turning a corner there it is, but along the side of the street are other ruins and we stop to enjoy them its all part of ancient Rome, it really is breathtaking and watch as workers piece together an old marble floor the parts are all numbered and they use old drawings to place them carefully. There are also many many street vendors and entertainers one can see that this is the number one tourist stop in Rome.
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| Getting close to the Colosseum |
As we walk up to the Colosseum its just incredible, to think of how old it is and the lack of technology they had compared to today, all hand build and put together, I'm in awe! We had purchased Roma passes and used them gain entrance when you walk in, one just has to wonder at all the terrible and wonderful things that happened in this building, Humans are a violent creature and this building sure had its fair share of violence, but it has also been used for many wonderful events as well.
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| Derek and Tanya |
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| Pat and I inside the Colesseum |
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| Construction of the Colosseum was begun sometime between 70 and 72 ce during the reign of Vespasian |
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| The Arch of Constantine to the left, is a triumphal arch in Rome situated between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill. It was erected by the Roman Senate to commemorate Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 |
After and hour inside the Colosseum we venture out and take in the sights around, the ancient city of Rome is all around us, The Oppian Hill is just outside the walls, its the southern spur of the Esquiline Hill, one the seven hills of Rome, we walk to the top where there is a small chapel. As we walk back down the old city is to our right and you get an idea of what Ancient Rome looked like.
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| Ancient and New Rome come together |
As we say goodbye to the Colosseum area we head back into the streets to find some lunch, we stop at small pizzeria and sit outside, re-energized ourselves with some food and wine, at this point we have walk close to 5 miles. We head off and just start to wander, its really is hard to get lost with so many recognizable big buildings but for a bit we do get lost and end up in front of the Italian Presidents residence a huge building with Police and Military all around it, we watch as Police led caravans bring people in and out of the area. With a little help from some very nice officers we make our way to the Trevi Fountains, a small square with a huge crowd all around the Fountains. Police are constantly blowing whistles at people getting to close to the water, I dipped my hands in and splash my face without getting whistled at :) it was so refreshing as its been extremely warm in Rome.
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| The Trevi Fountain is a fountain in the Trevi district in Rome, Italy, designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini construction began in 1732 |
We leave the fountains and its back to getting lost in the streets, we do know the general direction that we need to go in as our Villa is along the famous Tiber river, as long as we find the river no problem finding our home for now. We find ourselves in Roman shopping district so we end up doing some shopping and follow this main road to a square that takes us right to the river. The square is Porta Del Puopolo a gate to the Aurelian Walls of Rome built in the year 1475 there are several monuments there.
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| Porta Del Puopolo |
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| Porta Del Puopolo |
From Porta Del Puopolo we find the river and head back to the Villa for break at this point we have walked close to 10 miles. after 30 min we find ourselves back in a familiar area the walk to our villa is all uphill then 5 flights of steps, it feel like were climbing a mountain.
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| Tiber River |
After taking a break for a few hours we head out for dinner, we had a recommendation for a restaurant from Chef Anthony Lombardo of now famous Shewolf Pastificio restaurant in Detroit, we were very excited to go there it was right next to the Pantheon. We get to the restaurant and they ask if we had reservations, uhh no, well it turns out that they were booked solid for the next couple days so end up picking another place in front of the Pantheon and it is called Primi Piatti, I would recommend this restaurant as the food, waitstaff and the view were outstanding!
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