Nov. 11, 2014 Rome

Fernando and Cathy at the colosseo.

9:30 start because we didn't wake up until Penny heard the noise from the garbage collection from the back room. Good breakfast in the apt. Fernardo was the first one ready to go on our exploration of ancient Rome. After buying Roma passes, we continued down Via Nationale and found our way to the Colosseum. We were tickled pink to be able to skip the long, long line and walk right in with our Roma passes!!! The Colosseum is amazing. Fernando says the civil engineering is unbelievable. Cathy and Penny tried to listen to the Rick Steves audio tour and were moderately successful. Cathy says, "And I thought American football was violent." People and animals slaughter in great numbers for the entertainment of the masses.

Fernando and chocolate/pistachio gelato

After taking a million photos we went looking for lunch, and Cathy had the brilliant idea of taking the bus (free with the Roma pass) out of the immediate tourist throngs, and Fernando spotted a great corner sandwich/pizza place and we enjoyed eggplant/spinach/mozzarella panini and a porchetta sandwich. Guess who had which?  And then there was Gelateria Flor with wonderful flavors.  We are keeping our promise to ourselves of eating a gelato every day.  To keep up our health (and weight).

Cathy trying to drink out of a "nasoni".

How can these ruins have survived so long? Another million photos and we took the bus to San Giovanni in Laterno, the first Christian church in Rome although not much remains of that, just the huge renovation by Barromini in the 16th century. And we stopped to see the Scala Sancta (Sacred Stairs) and we restrained Fernando who wanted to climb them on his knees. An exploration on the way to the Metro (also free with Roma Pass) resulted in dinner for tonight when we found a frozen food store and picked up shrimp and asparagus prepared for our pasta, as well a lettuce from the mercato. We are now almost finished with our bottle of Novello, and we haven't even started cooking. Stay tuned for tomorrow and the Borghese Gallery.