Rome Part 2: History Lesson, Colosseum and More!

We woke up early the next day and got ready and started our day as quickly as possible. Rome is such a giant city with so much to see, that if you don't take advantage of every moment, you will miss so much. So we took advantage and saw as much as possible in the few days we had here. The morning, however, we took a break to sit, and that break was one of the most memorable on the trip. Before that, however, we went to go see the Roman Circus, this was where the chariots used to race and was a very important stadium back in ancient times. Now, however, it is just a field that looks like a bowl because of the way it is indented. There are really no remains of the Roman Circus, except a few walls on the far side, and to make it even harder to picture what used to be there, they were having a Carabinieri (Italian Police) celebration. Apparently there was the 90th anniversary of the Armed Forces of Italy so they were having all these celebrations and everything, and the Circus was filled with all the military vehicles you could imagine, they had tanks and helicopters and armed men and police cars and everything. It was pretty cool, and Ravi was in heaven, but it kind of sucked that we weren't able to walk around the Roman Circus. So anyway, after that we kept walking and were planning on doing part of the Roman Forum, which was where all day to day activities happened in Ancient Rome, it was one of if not the most important part of Rome and everything went down there. We couldn't find the entrance right away and had to walk a bit, and then realized we didn't have enough time to do it. This was because we were meeting our friend Jordan; he was coming to join us! So instead we went to this place overlooking part of the Forum that I accidently found yesterday searching for the Pantheon. Then began the History Lesson. This hour or however long we stood there was one of the coolest and most memorable moments of the whole trip. It was nothing special at all, but Laura, Ravi and I were all talking about history. I was telling them about Roman history while they were giving me some history and we were discussing all kinds of things. It was just so amazing, talking about history in this city. I would be explaining something about the forum and all I would have to do is point, and they would see where Julius Caesar was assassinated, or where the markets were or anything. It was all right in front of us!! It really was amazing, and talking with them and just having that experience in the heart of Rome, it was something else. After a while we had to go and meet Jordan at the hostel, we met up with him and then we began by taking him to all the places we saw yesterday so he could see them as well. It was cool going back, and we got to see the Pantheon in better light which was nice. After all of that we decided it was time to do the Colosseum!!! Wow, I can't tell you how excited I was. We walked from the Pantheon, along the Forum, and walked all the way to the Colosseum. It was so cool walking towards one of the most recognized buildings in history, and something I had studied which made it that much more incredible. We got to the entrance and found a tour guide that, with our Roma Passes, would get us in and let us join a tour for only 10 euro! It also gave us a free Forum tour while our passes were still valid. It was such a good deal!! So we entered the Colosseum, and wow, the feeling of actually walking into there was unreal. One of those dream moments I have talked about so much. We walked through the hallways, out into the open overlooking what used to be the stadium. Up to the second level and had an amazing view of the entire Colosseum. The whole time I was just picturing in my head how this must have looked thousands of years ago. The whole time I was just in awe, it was so amazing. The tour was also pretty good and we got some really good information. After the tour we walked around a little more and just enjoyed as much as we could of this building. After a while we got kicked out because they were closing so we left and went outside and walked around. We stayed at the Colosseum for a long time after because it was when the sun was setting and the light was so beautiful and made the building look that much more amazing. When we left, we also had chocolate cigars! We went to a chocolate store/travel agency (amazing, right?!) earlier, and thought it would be pretty awesome to have chocolate cigars after leaving the colosseum, and it was awesome, haha. After that we took some pictures, played a game on a small railing to see who could balance the best, and then we all lied down on the grass by the Colosseum and just relaxed and talked. It was so much fun. After that we went to dinner, found a nice pizza place and Antonio and his friends joined us. We had a lot of fun, after we walked around, went back to the awesome Trevi Fountain, and then went back to our hostel for bed. Once again, we were just excited to go to bed, so we could wake up, because the next day was Vatican City!!!