Rome Day One

Italy is the place everyone must visit, but the experience can never be fully explained.If I had a vocabulary the size of a dictionary, I would be able to better describe how Italy is, but as for now, all I can think of is ‘Amazing’.


This was the first meal we had in the center of Rome. Delicious, cheap, and filling. We had a broccoli and cheese calzone, and four slices of pizza with tomato, pesto, spinach and cheese. We treated ourselves with Fanta too! The shop we stopped at was a little place out of the way of the mainstream of tourist traffic, so there were no long lines, and plenty of fresh good food to choose from.

The Colloseum from the inside. This building is amazing! While we were here, we imagined all of the things that people used to do while the structure was in working condition. There used to be criminals who would fight for their freedom and life against soldiers and beasts. There was a system of tunnels under the stage in which there were many trap doors and pulleys to enhance the entertainment. Also, all of the stairs and seating were arranged in such a way that many people could quickly come in and fill the seats, but they would also be able to quickly file out at the end of the fighting. One thing interesting that I found was that on this bottom row (where the wealthy people sat) there was a waterproofed stone ditch that was used as a urinal. Also, the Colloseum was partly destroyed by people who would use the rock and stone for new buildings. One city that was made with some of the Colloseum was the Vatican. Hmm…

This is the great ‘Roman Junk Yard’ (as Riley put it). Drawings of what it used to look like make it look spectacular, but now, it’s in pieces. We spent a lot of time looking around here. We came to Rome during culture week so all of the public museums and monuments were free. There was more to this area that we could hike up and look at, but we were very tired. It was really hot and we walked up and down a lot of stairs at the colloseum.

Here is the Piazza Navona. We came here to see what there was. We found that there were a lot of people selling their art. Beyond that, there were guys selling imitation purses, sunglasses, watches, and so on. There were also two fountains on each side of the plaza. In the center is a large monument with a pretty building in the background. I have to apologize to anyone reading this who knows the significant of it, but I just haven’t figured it out yet. Before this, we visited the Pantheon, but my photos didn’t turn out too well. It was too dark in the building for good photos with my camera.

We also saw the Fontana di Trevi, which is a famous fountain. I especially recognized it from one of Hilary Duff’s movies. (Sorry, but it’s true.) This plaza was packed with people. I videotaped Riley throwing the Queen into the water. Yes, he threw a British penny (with the Queen’s face on it) in there. I told Riley he shouldn’t have because the guy who cleans it out every Sunday afternoon is going to have to exchange that at the bank in order to use it. At least it wasn’t an American penny, he would have had to wait for a few more to be able to change it for any Euros.