Day 7 - A winter day in Rome

23,728 steps, 11.31 miles, 22 floors

For our cover photo...here's Sierra taking in the Vatican right before dusk. 

We sleep for a whopping 11 hours--I guess we needed it. Ordinarily I would worry about a late start...but it's winter right? There won't be crowds like in summer (hint: this is foreshadowing)? This morning was my torrid affair with the diabolically-engineered bathroom, where I ran out of water pressure and hot water and completely drenched the tile floor, then gouged my forehead on a box with no wordly business being in a wall opposite a toilet. Sierra wisely concludes that she should shower in the evening, and we get going. 

We then make our way out and to the Colisseum. Apparently this is the one place in Italy that is absolutely jam-packed in February. It's noon already, so we have about 5-6 hours to see sights before dark, and the line looks like a 2-hour wait. Oops. Well, an American guy in a counter-culture hat spots my American-ness and talks us into paying him €25 euros each for a tour of the Colisseum, the Palatine hill and the Roman Forum. It would be the best decision we made today. We skipped the line, and joined a group of 40 people with an Italian guide who spoke English well. He regaled us with tales of the Colisseum, the games, and some misconceptions from Hollywood. 

In the middle, they've built a replica of the arena floor as it looked two thousand years ago. 

The Colisseum. Duh. 

Sierra's shot from outside the Colisseum. The outer two walls collapsed during an earthquake, but thankfully were reinforced before more of it was lost. 

Sierra's shot of the forum

This is the Forum, virtually in its entirety, as seen from Palatine hill. The Colisseum is on the far right. 

We learned that Gladiators were typically slaves or criminals. We learned that it took 7 (or was it 8?) years for a Gladiator to be freed...and few made it. Some free men (usually former soldiers) volunteered, largely because fame and riches came along. An incredible system of elevators and trap doors existed to launch exotic animals into the arena during a bout. This was one of many ways to show how far the empire stretched (the exotic animals present). We learned about Romulus and Remis, and about the emperors and the fall of Rome. It was an incredible learning experience between the two tours, reaffirming our satisfaction with our decision to pay the extra €8 or so for the tour. 

One of the most awesome sights through the trip is the selfie sticks we mentioned in Florence. There, only Africans seemed to be selling them. Here in Rome, it was only what I assess to be East Indians or Pakistanis, but I'm not sure. See for yourself:

The "selfie stick mafia" on the prowl. If I zoom out, you'd see 7,000 of these guys. ...or more realistically they would see you and try to sell you a selfie stick or a portable smartphone charger. 

We provide our readers with a bit of irony, as we snap a selfie of ourselves in front of the selfie stick salesmen. Later I would try to explain to one of them that my arm is my selfie stick. It would not dissuade him or reduce his tenacity in any way. 

The target customers for the selfie sticks. 

This ties in with another one of my quasi-racist observations: About 70% of the tourists around here are asian, and most seem to be Chinese. This could be because (I think) their new year just happened, or it could be because their currency is way up vs the Euro, but there are an unmistakably high number of Chinese tourists here. When you see the immense army of selfie-stick clad explorers, you can't help but think the enterprising fellows I mentioned before are probably driving Ferraris. You also can't help but wonder why they keep b-lining towards a tall, white man to try and sell these things. One guy nearly stabbed me in the eye with a portable charger. What a jerk person. 

I digress, and onward we press towards Vatican City. We find an awesome place for a 3pm breakfast. It was the first real breakfast we've found, and it was an American breakfast (apparently we are the only ones who think it's the most important meal of the day). We also share three deliciously-large meatballs and add two more Cappucino notches to our belt. We walk out in the general direction of the Vatican and see this:

Film crews prepping for a Roman chase scene in the next Bond film

We walk along the river and through some quaint little alleyways until we get up to Vatican City. The line is massive, and we both agree not to spend the rest of daylight in line. I've been inside and she hasn't, but maybe we'll check it out later in life. We still have so much of Rome to see!  We did have time to relax a bit outside...

The Vatican - Basilica de San Pietro (is I believe how they say it)

Okay I'll admit, Sierra's photos are better than mine. 

Just three dudes having Coronas at the Vatican. 

We then grab some Gelato and make our way through town to the Spanish steps. 

Note to self: I cannot fit in there

The view of the Spanish steps and the piazza d'espana from the top. 

Our seat near the bottom of the steps 

As we get closer to home, we decide to stop at Restaurante RomAntica, below our place. ...and boy was it RomAntica: they had some sweet throwback R&B jams playing all evening. We had some white wine (a rarity on this trip), some pretty good pasta, some salads and then headed upstairs to clean up and pack up. Gotta head to Amalfi early!

I decided to sneak into the kitchen after they finished cooking to snag a couple of glasses and enjoy one of our Montepulciano wines. This was of course a tactical decision to lighten the load since I'd been carrying 3 full bottles.