Markets and gladiators and tired feet

At the Campo de'Fiori

Our hotel is noisy.  For such a dinky street outside our window, there’s a lot of traffic.  Of course, this did not stop us from sleeping for 14 hours last night.  Although the windows don’t seem to close well enough to keep out the street noise, the shutters and blinds really do well to keep out the light.  I remember waking up a few times over night and thinking how strange it was that they were doing street construction in the middle of the night. 

To add insult to injury, at the end of our
long walk, we had to climb these steps.

                It wasn’t the middle of the night.  It was probably 8 am.  We didn’t really rouse ourselves until almost 10!  This was ok.  We’re half-acclimated to Italy time. 

                Missing the hotel breakfast was a little sad, but we hit the streets again, looking for more adventure.  Our directional sense seems to have improved.  We got around well enough to make it to the Campo di Fiori market by brunch time.  And we were able to get the food we bought to the park next to the Forum square in the middle of lunch hour.  Somehow we managed to find a quiet, shady park bench amid the throngs of people milling around the forum and Coliseum.

View from the top of those steps.

                Our big tip of the day: Go to the Forum first.  You get a combo ticket, see?  (No discount for children originating outside the EU.)  And the line to buy them at the Forum was 12 people deep.  The line to buy tickets at the Coliseum when we finally got over there was 1,200 people deep.  That was a good line to miss.  The Coliseum was a good thing not to miss.  Unlike many marquee tourist locations, this one held up to high expectations.  Archeological exhibits inside the upper ring showed items from the everyday lives of the average Coliseum attendees -- bone sewing needles, chicken bones from in-game snacks, glass beads from a bracelet, stylus pens – that were retrieved from the drains after they were swept there by workers a thousand years ago.  There was much evidence of betting, ancient graffiti, and even game boards scratched into the benches to occupy people’s time while the games were at a lull.

The Roman Forum

               The structure itself was solidly impressive, and larger than I expected.  It was also so familiar that little description was necessary as we walked along the inner terraces. Crowds were large, but unobtrusive, except for when you were trying to take a picture or trying to avoid being in someone else picture.  The gift shop was small and hidden way off to the side.  That’s not to say there weren’t dozens of people milling about outside trying to sell us stuff, but the expectation has become that the whole tour would dump you into an elaborate gift store extravaganza finale.  This was missing and probably will be until Disney takes over.

Orange tree

               That left the walk home, which, after we ruled out a trip on the Metro, was not that bad.  The area around the Coliseum, Forum and Piazza di Venizia were very crowded, but the people were genial.  We may escape Rome without having our pockets picked.  From there we had our bearings and it was not a long stroll at all home, with a detour for dinner for good measure.

                A note on Roman dining: Those outdoor streetside cafes are inviting, especially on days like today, when the temperature was mild and you could sit outside in the evening without a jacket.  The appeal of the quiet, narrow side streets is very strong; however, the streets are not always as quiet as they appear.  They’re plenty narrow, alright.  A few cars came surprisingly close to Jen, who occupied the end seat of our table.

Almost getting run over while
eating dinner

From Jen:

It was another gorgeous, sunny day today – an important factor given that everything we’ve been doing is outside.  On the other hand, this may have encouraged us to become a little overambitious in the amount of walking we took on.  In our defense, there was a transit strike today, so we didn’t have the option of taking a bus or metro anyway (though given our propensity to take wrong turns, we’re more comfortable on foot where the consequences aren’t as dramatic).

2/3 of the kids were beat by the time we got to the Roman Forum.  Bob and I took turns exploring with Zoe while the other two rested (and Lanie actually fell asleep at one point).  We all made it up Palatine Hill, which was my favorite part in any case – you could walk amongst the ruins and through beautiful gardens, with fragrant magnolias and orange trees, with a beautiful view of the Forum and Rome laid out beneath you.  (Once we got done with this portion of the walking, Zoe joined the ranks of the exhausted.)

The kids rallied for the Colosseum, though.  (This was mostly because we told them there would be gelato afterwards.  This is a powerful motivator.  And then we noticed that it was after 6:00 by the time we left the Colosseum, so we pulled a bait and switch and made them eat dinner first.)