You can see pictures from this day here.
We slept well in the Rome apartment. We got our act together and hit the road with a free map that the hotel had on display. Rome is full of stuff to see, and we wanted to do as much as we could, even though we had nearly a full day the next day to look around.
We saw the Panthenon, and then made our way through the Roman forum ruins to reach the Colloseum. I’ve wanted to see that since I was a little kid, and I got a little thrill when we saw it in the distance.
Unfortunately, the tourists were already there and the line to get in was really long. It looked like a couple of hours, at least. The good news was that I had an insider tip from my guidebook. We walked to another less popular attraction just down the road, waited in line behind two other people, and then bought a combination pass for that site and also the Colloseum, and then came back.
Kuniko wasn’t quite sure what I was doing, and although I tried to explain, her instinct was to just get in line instead of mucking around with this perhaps futile trick. We got back to the Colloseum and instead of joining the back of the line, we walked to the front and observed that there was actually another entrance for groups and ticket holders. We hesitantly put our tickets in the machine and walked right in. We saved hours of waiting and I was glad that the guidebook tip worked out. I know I would have gotten in big trouble with Kuniko if I didn’t work out.
The Colloseum was even more interesting inside – we walked around taking pictures and tried to imagine what it was like way back when. It really sunk in then that you were walking in the footsteps of so many people who lived so long ago – seeing the lion cages and catacombs underneath the Colloseum really brought it home.
From the Colloseum we headed across town and saw the Trevi fountain, which reminded me of Las Vegas quite a bit. We took in a lot of minor fountains and famous sites, and we stopped for drinks every once in a while to keep ourselves hydrated. We had lunch outside a caf̩ on top of the Spanish Steps near Piazza Spagnio. We ate prosciutto sandwiches, a big mozzarella salad and sipped fruit juices Рrefreshing.
We also did some shopping at some grocery stores for some pastas and fun things that are hard to find in Japan. Kuniko wanted to get some things for her co-workers, so we spent quite a bit of time exploring the supermarket shelves for fun things. Kuniko found an interesting Nutella product – it had some Nutella in one compartment, some bread sticks to dip into the Nutella, and it had a drink compartment built in as well. She was dying to try it out, so we picked one up for later.
For dinner we ate near the hotel at a restaurant that the hotel guy recommended. It was pretty good and it was cheap, a welcome change for us. We ate pizza and pasta and I had roast pork, and we washed it all down with lots of house wine. While we were there a busload of Japanese tourists came in as part of a tour. The tour guide gave the owner of the restaurant a secret handshake, and all the tourists went inside. I hate to think how much they paid for their dinner.
It was our last evening in Rome, so we kept drinking and ended up back at the hotel a little tipsy with a container of Nutella. I did a little photo documentary of Kuniko trying it for the first time. It was good, actually, although the room temperature tea kind of weirded me out.
