Surviving Rome Heat

Today was all about the Coliseum, the Forum, and surviving the heat.

We had our tour for the Coliseum starting at 10 this morning because we anticipated it would be hot in Italy and we figured to get done our tour before the hottest part of the day hit us. What we didn't expect back then was the whole day would be blazing hot. Before our tour even started it was flirting with 30 degree weather. In Mooney fashion, we decided to walk to the Coliseum from our apartment. About a 2.2 km walk. We got to see the Mouth of Truth and the Circus Maximus on our way so that was a bonus. Then we got to the Coliseum, found our tour guide person, took some pictures of the Coliseum and waited for the tour to start.

I won't bore you with the details. We walked through the first and second levels, got a great history lesson and the headed over to the Forum where we started up on Palatine Hill and finished in the ruins of the Imperial Forum. So much great information. But.... sooooo hot. Not a lot of relief from the heat. Luckily Rome has water filling stations all through the city so we could always refill our water bottles when we ran out. But by the end we had some kids who weren't feeling well from the heat. So we took some breaks, got everyone nice and cool with water and we made our way back to our apartment to wait out the hottest part of the day.

After a few hours, when the sun was starting to go down a bit, we set out to explore Trastevere. For the next couple of hours we walked around, went up a hill for some great city views, and then we made our way back home stopping at a great restaurant for supper where Caden decided to try Octopus for supper. That went better than I thought. Then it was back home with a quick stop to enjoy some live music before we went up to our apartment to settle in for the night.

All in all it was a good day but we all feel the heat and the length of the trip and the mild longing for home starting to creep in is wearing on us a bit. It kind of takes the shine off of what we are experiencing. Not too much... but just a little.

Ok. Off to bed and tomorrow we go to the Vatican. Thanks for tagging along.Read more