Rome: Nov 27: Ancient Roman Buildings

After a late start and a basic buffet breakfast at our hotel, we left to explore Rome. I took a lot of pictures this day, and also managed to record from memory our rough walking route. This is actually the only day on the trip I managed to do it--all other days I either followed someone and didn't pay attention to how I got places or got lost and hence didn't know where I was for a while.

Incidentally, Di Yin also took many pictures. The link goes to her first picture from this day (picture #15). When you see a picture captioned "Home at last" (referring to our hotel) (picture #182), you're done with her pictures for the day. I'll link to the next day's pictures in the following post.

This day, we explored the ancient Roman center of the city, especially the Colosseum, the Forum, and Capitoline Hill, and also Trevi Fountain.

As we walked to the Colosseum, we passed lots of CGIL union marchers, many blocks long. We also saw a few churches. See the pictures for details.

We found the Colosseum, built in the first center C.E., but decided not to wait in the line to enter, instead deciding to find lunch. Before and after lunch, we wandered around the edge of the Forum, a complex built in the first couple centuries C.E. (We tried to find the entrance but never did. It turns out my guidebook was out of date.) After seeing it and other buildings, we didn't actually make it back to the Colosseum in time to go inside.

We walked north-west to Trevi Fountain, an impressive sight (more so than the Colosseum for instance), and stopped at the nearby San Crispino Gelateria, a famous gelato shop. The gelato was perfect! The sorbets were ethereally light yet bursting with flavor. We ended up trying seven flavors.

After more walking and dinner, we returned home. I enjoyed seeing the sites this day, but ended up sad I didn't go in anyplace.