Rome: Day 2 (14 September 2010)

I've slept very good on my first night in Rome. Even though our hotel is very close to the station, I haven't had any trouble with noise. Unfortunatly my boyfriend pulled the curtain a bit loose while opening it in the morning. (It wasn't repaired when we left, so if you ever visit this hotel and the curtain is a bit loose in room 138, that was us, lol.)

After eating breakfast, which wasn't great by the way, but since Romans normally don't eat breakfast I didn't mind, we went to the Forum Romanum. On our way we found out that the Italians' reputation about being bad drivers is absolutely deserved. :p They don't stop when a pedestrian wants to cross the road, they park where it's not allowed, they pass eachother with the most impossible maneuvres, etc.

After a fifteen minute walk we arrived at the Forum. The view was amazing!!



You'll also find a lot of Italian men dressed as Romans asking you to take a picture with them at the Forum. But beware: they ask 10€ for each person they take pictures with! Before we knew we had to pay 20€ for four pictures.

We also had to buy a cap for my boyfriend. Because of all the sun he had the feeling his brains were boiling inside his head. And it wasn't even 10 in the morning at that moment!

We entered the Forum Romanum for free with our Roma-pass. It was HUGE!! It used to be the center of Roman civilasation and you can still see the remains of a lot of temples, houses of important people, etc. We thought we would have seen everything in about two to three hours, but we spend all morning and a little part of the afternoon walking through the remains.

Especially the Palatine Hill is very nice. It shows the biggest remains and has the most beautiful views of Rome. I absolutely recommend visiting it.

 

We also saw Circus Maximus. The Circus Maximus used to be a large chariot racing stadium. Unfortunatly there's not much to see anymore but grass. Sometimes they use the terrain for concerts.

In the afternoon we went to visit the Colosseum. You know it's big because you've seen it on pictures, but when you're standing in front of it, it looks even bigger than big. We could enter here for free also with our Roma-pass. And another advantage was that we didn't have to wait at all. We could just go to the counter and enter right away. We also hired an audio guide to get some exra info. It was amazing! To think about the animals and the gladiators that lived, fought and died there, the emperor and the people watching.I can't believe they build such a building at that time. It's absolutely amazing.

Our last visit of the day was to the Baths of Caracalla. We were a bit dissapointed here. There wasn't much to see but the walls and some mosaic and I had a hard time imagining how it used to be like. In Ancient Rome these baths used to be more than just baths. It was a complex to relax. There was a library, a whole series of different baths, shops, etc.
The gardens were very nice to just sit for a while and enjoy the view from the shadow.

At the end of the day my feet hurt and they were very dirty, but I had lots of fun and I saw some beautiful sights. I was already looking forward to day 3. :D