(Sorry for the cheesy post titles. I know.)
After our day at the Vatican, Brad and I were ready to see some bona fide Roman ruins. So, the next day we took a tour of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum.
Inside the Colosseum. The platform on the left is a recreation of the floor that used to cover the center of the Colosseum. It was covered with sand to soak up the blood from the "entertainment".
From the Colosseum, we had a great view of Constantine's Arch.
More Colosseum shots. It is impossible not to take photo after photo in this place.
We learned that these holes in the walls were from the scaffolding used when the Colosseum was being built. Nobody knows for sure who the architect was who designed it, but it was built by Jewish slaves.
The skeleton of the Colosseum is built of bricks, which are visible today. But in its heyday, all the walls were covered in marble that has since been pilfered away.
A rare bit of the original marble floor.
Can you imagine what this looked like with marble walls and artwork everywhere? Amazing!
Looking up at Constantine's Arch from the ground. Constantine was the first Christian Roman emperor, but he was still a mean guy.
We also got to look around Palatine Hill, which is where the emperors and rulers had their houses. This is a garden built by the emperor Domitian. It is a smaller version of the Circus where they held chariot races.
Ruins of Domitian's palace.
Only a small remnant of the original floor exists. You can see this was once a super fancy place.
Another garden at Domitian's palace.
And yet another garden. You can see the dome of St. Peter's Basilica peeking up in the background. Out of respect for the church and what it represents, there are no buildings in Rome taller than the dome of St. Peter's.
Our first view of the Roman Forum.
Brad next to some random stone with writing.
This was kind of weird. This is the altar built by Augustus, who was the first official Roman Emperor. He built it to remember his uncle, Julius Caeser who was murdered in the Forum. You can see that people still pay their respects.
After 4+ hours touring Roman ruins, we found a little restaurant where we ate pizza and hoped the rain would stop. It didn't, so we went back to our hotel for a nap. I'm not going to lie - it was awesome. Afterward, we watched Ben Hur (can you believe I'd never seen it before?) and had burgers and fries from room service (don't judge me).
Brad had to return to work the next day, so that basically was the end of our Fabulous Roma Vacation. I just loved every minute of this weekend. We saw our fill of cool stuff, both artsy and historical, but had some down-time, too, so it was just chill.
I officially ♥ Rome.
