On my first full day in Rome, I knew where I needed to go. The Colosseum, right? I mean, that’s got to be the first thing, right? It’s recently been voted one of the seven wonders of the world. It’s the single greatest icon in a city of icons. This had to be the destination.
So, that was the destination. To get there, I took the metro. I bought a seven-day metro pass for 16 euro, which I thought was a steal of a deal. Paris’ metro pass is 33 euros for five days. Turns out, though, that Rome’s metro system sucks. There aren’t many stops and you can literally walk around for hours and not find a stop. I know because I did. (They say that the reason it’s so bad is that there are so many ruins still underground that they can’t build additional metro stops without destroying them. Let me tell you, though, that the longer you walk around looking for a way back to your hotel, the less you are interested in saving some column that hasn’t been seen in 1,000 years and may never again see the light of day.) The pass can also be used for the busses, however, so once I figured out the bus system, the card was rather useful.
Where was I? Oh, yeah, the Colosseum. The Colosseum, coincidentally, is at the Colosseum metro spot. In fact, that’s probably why they built the Colosseum there. Okay, enough Colosseum humor. At first, I just walked around the structure. It probably is the most amazing sight I’ve ever seen from the steps of a metro stop. (And I’ve seen a lot of metro stops.) It is amazing to think that this massive amphitheater could have been built with nearly 2,000-year old technology. Still, I didn’t find it as overwhelming as I thought I might. After a while, it sort of grows on you that it’s not amazing for what it is, per se. There are thousands of larger, more fascinating stadiums. It’s amazing for when it was built and how much of it still remains. When it hit me that I was primarily celebrating old, it became less amazing to me since I’ve seen a hell of a lot of old recently.
I used the English electronic guide and went inside for a little tour. You learn a lot about the history of the Colosseum using the guide and it brings the structure much more to life. I probably spent about an hour inside the Colosseum and I think that was probably enough. I ended up visiting again several nights later at 3:00 am and rather drunk, but I don’t think those pictures came out as well.
When you pay for entrance into the Colosseum, you also get entrance into the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, both of which contain great remnants of perhaps the most dominant empire the world has ever seen. The remains range from “tremendously well-preserved” to “what the hell did that used to be and how could you tell?” The most amazing features, and likely the most famous, are the arches Arches of Septimus Severus and of Titus, though the Arch of Constantine, right outside of the Colosseum, was still my favorite.
Afterwards, I walked to Trevi Fountain. Why? Because I was in Rome. I had to walk to Trevi Fountain. I didn’t throw any coins in because I heard that throwing one coin in the fountain meant that you would return to Rome and I wasn’t yet sure if that was what I wanted. Anyway, I went and it was, of course, beautiful. And huge. I took some pictures and sat and did some people-watching. In the neighborhood, there are lots of little touristy restaurants and gelaterias. I’ll go into more detail about food in a later post, but I stopped by a little pizza place about a block from Trevi fountain that had really good pizza. It was one of the few places that I liked so much that I returned to it. (For the record, it was much better the first time.)
Those are the highlights of my first full-day of sightseeing. It also involved walking around for hours and hours and taking pictures and stuff, but I won’t bore you with all of that. There will be other, more important things that I can bore you with in future posts.
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