Sunday, June 29th, 2014

We got up reasonably early because we had a lot to see. Charlotte and I went out first to see if the grocery store was open and it wasn’t, but when we went by with the family on the way to the Palantine Hill it was! So we ran in and got the things we forgot, mostly laundry detergent, and then returned to the apartment to drop it all off and start the next load of laundry. We walked to the forum, passing all kinds of interesting ruins along the way. There is just so much in Rome, I think it really deserves a week. Anyhow, we got our tickets to Palantine Hill no problem and toured that first. It was pretty interesting as it was the start of Rome and they even had found the markings from one of the ancient huts they would have used before they starting building houses. Then we went over to the Foro Romano and well, it’s well documented how much is there. It was pretty crowded and hot, so we saw a lot but then left before it became too painful. We were pretty hungry and needed a break by then but there’s not really a lot right by the forum and Colosseum (you’d have to walk a bit and then we’d have to walk back) so we just stopped at a food truck and Charlotte and I got a pretty pathetic gelato and Genevieve got this colossal donut. Then we went into the colosseum, bypassing the huge ticket line. Seriously, don’t stand in this line. Get the combo ticket at the Palantine Hill and save yourself a lot of hassle. The colosseum is of course really big but the one in Arles, France we’d seen a couple years before was better preserved. I guess colosseums are a bit like churches and California Missions-they all start to blend together after a while!

We left and went to go find lunch, which we did on a little side street. Mark ordered the salame appetizer, and they brought him a basket of salumi with a knife and a cutting board! Crazy. The food was pretty good, although I ordered carpaccio, not realizing it was full on raw beef, which I paid for later with chills and a general ill feeling all night. No more raw beef for me!

After our lunch we were much fortified, which was good because there was still a lot more to see. We headed out to the Trajan’s market and Trajan’s column. Genevieve especially liked the prospect of an ancient mall. Then we walked to the Vittorio Emmanuel Monument, built to celebrate the unification of Italy. The bummer is they build it on top of ruins, but it is a pretty impressive building, and also air conditioned. We walked to the top and enjoyed the view out on to the City from there (and also the breeze) then we headed back down and to our apartment for a much-deserved rest.

Later we headed out again to the Capitoline Museum. Very nice museum with a lot lot lot of stuff. The coolest thing was the view out the back of the forum. And look at how uncrowded, and how much cooler it is now in the evening! Doh! We should have repeated what we did on our honeymoon and hit this later in the day for sure. After the museum we walked around a bit then went to dinner at Emma’s Pizzeria, a restaurant close to our apartment. This was a really nice place, it looked small from the front but they had a really big subterranean dining room and kind of fancy food. After dinner, the girls had crepes at a crepe stand on the way home. Fitbit says we walked 11.25 miles and 51 flights of stairs, and I believe it!

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