Further exploring Rome

Today we further explored Rome, hitting key sights like the Colosseum!

We started our day getting up bright and early and grabbing cappuccinos from two different cafes on our walk to the Roman Forum. We really enjoyed both cappuccinos, and loved how milky they were! It was fun to sample them across town, as the type of bean used made a huge difference(we didn’t enjoy the dark roast as much, as it overpowered the milk).

Once we arrived at the Roman Forum, we were shocked by the size and scale. The complex of ruins stretched out for multiple city blocks ahead of us, and people were already flowing in(we’d heard it could get busy, so we arrived when it opened). We explored as much of the Roman Forum as we could, and enjoyed seeing the huge pillars and monuments.

Once we’d seen much of the forum, we began the ascent of Palatine Hill, which towers over the forum and is the spot many Roman emperors lived. At the top we explored the ruins of old palaces and homes of emperors past, as well as other nobles that had lived atop the hill. The view from the top of Palatine Hill was incredible, as you could see the entire forum stretching beneath you.

Following Palatine Hill, we exited the forum to the Colosseum. We had a timed entry to the Colosseum and our time slot was coming up, so used the little time we had available to grab lunch from the most touristy spot we’ve eaten yet on this trip, with views of the Colosseum. We knew it was touristy as it had 2 stars on google reviews and hundreds of reviews complaining about the food quality. The food was honestly terrible, and appeared to come from a microwave, but it hit our needs perfectly as it came out quickly, and enabled us to rush back to the Colosseum to make our timed entry! (No blog pictures of this meal 😂)

We made our timed entry perfectly, and entered the Colosseum. Chris had gotten us special tickets that allowed us arena floor access, and we really enjoyed seeing the views from this perspective. After exploring the arena floor, we went to explore the first and second level stands, as well as the Colosseum museum which houses old relics and a ton of good information on the Colosseum’s history. One tidbit we learned was that in Medieval times many different groups of people lived in the Colosseum; a noble family fortified it into a fortress, another group used it as a manger to house livestock, and yet another group used it as a marketplace.

Once we’d had our fill of the Colosseum we wandered the city and grabbed some drinks to go. Chelsea had an Aperol Spritz, which is her favorite European cocktail, and Chris tried a Campari spritz. Interestingly, you can drink in public in Rome, so we enjoyed our beverages as we headed to the Jewish quarter, where we tried Jewish/Roman food which we really enjoyed! It essentially was Italian food infused with artichokes, Chris had artichoke lasagna with white sauce, and we both shared a Roman style artichoke(which appeared to be a boiled artichoke). Chels had grilled veggies and focaccia.

After dinner we wandered over to a neighborhood we’d previously explored that we really liked and grabbed dessert- cannoli and gelato! Funnily enough, they had the Dubai chocolate we’d recently discovered in Dubai as a flavor, so we tried that paired with pistachio. Both were excellent, and we found a pizza place we plan to head to tomorrow as well!Read more