The Trip Part 2

We woke up early for day 2 in Rome. We had a big day planned: the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain....general exploring.

We took the bus to city center without incident and walked to the Colosseum. It's so weird to be in a place that you've seen so many times in pictures. It was very surreal. We had purchased a Roma pass prior to our trip which meant we skipped the lines at all of the major attractions. The line was like insane. We walked passed everyone, got our ticket and walked right in. The kids thought it was really cool.

Afterwards we had lunch at a restaurant across from the Colosseum. Talk about a view! I had linguine with clam sauce which was amazing. So much pasta...

Then we walked to Palantine Hill and the Roman Forum. We really liked Palentine Hill but we LOVED the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum was my favorite.
                         
To walk through structures that are thousands of years old, that have been around since before the time of Christ was a humbling experience that words can't really describe.

We all took a lot of pictures and OOOHHH and AAAAHHHHed.

Afterwards we headed to the Pantheon, which was MASSIVE. We walked in among hordes of people and it was so big and so beautiful that you didn't even know where to look to see it, to take it all in. We walked to the center right underneath the hole in the dome and looked up.

                       
We were in awe. Except for my husband who turned to me and said, "I wonder what happens when it rains?" He's always so practical.

We left and took a break at a fountain in front of the Pantheon. Absolutely beautiful.
                              
Then these protesters showed up with flags and crazy outfits and bullhorns. I don't know exactly what they were protesting about- LGBT rights, global warming, shitty metro service? We decided that it would be a good time to find some yummy gelato.

After our gelato (and macaroons) we made the hike to Trevi fountain.



There were a ton of people there but we managed to weasel our way to the front and we threw a coin in to ensure that we would go back to Rome in the future. It was so amazing.

At the end of the day, we were hot and exhausted. My husband looked down at his watch. "We walked 22,000 steps today." My poor kiddos. We loaded onto the bus, anxious to get back to our hotel and shower before dinner.

Everything was going as planned, we were almost back to the hotel when the bus driver pulled up behind 2 other stopped buses. He then proceeded to get out of the bus, and eat a sandwich and shoot the bull with 2 other bus drivers who ALSO had bus fulls of people.

We looked around and everyone else on the bus was no bothers. They acted like this was a totally normal occurrence. My husband and I just laughed. "This would not fly in the US. Someone on the bus would start going ghetto."

After the bus driver ate his sandwich, he sauntered back to his seat like a bus and dropped us off. We walked back to the hotel, showered, and then went back to the restaurant around the corner. There were so many things on the menu we saw the night before that we wanted to try.

We ate so much food it was disgusting. We got appetizers and different entrees and we all sampled each other's food. We saved room for creme brulee for dessert. Yum!

Then we walked back to the hotel, got into our jammies, and watched King of the Hill in Italian which was strange and amusing. It was a good day.