A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum…

Wednesday, May 06, 2015

Hello, from very hot Roma!

According to our guide today at the Colosseo, this is NOT May weather, it is July or August weather!  So happy to hear that it NEVER is this hot in May … as we continue to melt!

So…back to our story…we found the Punto market last night at Piazza di Re, and while it is definitely lacking in the fruit and veggie department, we were able to put together quite a respectable breakfast for this morning.  We also discovered Procopio, which is a wonderful gelato shop right down the street from the grocery store … YUM; excellent stracciatella (which is my favorite) combined with a dark chocolate…there are wonderful things in Italy!

I think I was in bed right about 9 p.m. (we are such party animals…) and had a pretty respectable night until about 2 a.m. when I woke up, I’m assuming, from jetlag.  Finally read myself back to sleep, but when the 6 a.m. alarm decided to ring, I turned it off and went back to sleep – very unusual for me!  I did get up about 6:45. 

Arch of Constantine, next to Colosseo

From home, I had booked an English-speaking tour of the recently excavated underground passages, as well as the third level, through the Colosseo’s website, for 12:20 p.m. this afternoon.  So, on our way to the National Museum of Rome, as were going right by the Colosseo, we thought we would pick up our tickets so that we would have them for the tour. 

Our first stop was to find the 117-mini bus, which, it turns out, runs from behind St. John Lateran church.  We knew it was close, but hadn’t been able to pinpoint the actual site.  Being the first two people on the bus, we were able to get seats, which is good, as this little mini-bus bounces around all over the place!  R always says that the buses have worn-out shock absorbers from the amazingly rough Roman streets, but now he figures that they have no shock absorbers at all, which does explain a lot.

As it turned out, since we had the reservation paperwork, we basically walked past all the lines and right up to a helpful person at the box office!  He gave us our tickets as well as stickers to put on our shirt to identify us for the English tour this afternoon.  And, since the tour included admission to the Forum as well as the Colosseo, and we were right there, we decided, what the heck! 

Statute from Paladio Museo

Let’s revisit the Forum now!  So, over we went, to the Forum’s “back gate” so to speak, and for quite a while we had the place to ourselves; very, very peaceful.

We headed up the Palatine hill and went through the museum at the top; very nice presentation in both English and Italian. 

Farnese rose garden

M with Colosseo in background

Then we wandered through the Farnese gardens – a stunning display of roses and the orange trees were blooming all over the place; so fragrant!  From there, we wound back down the hill and through the traditional areas – past the temple of Romulus and by the various arches.  There is a lot of excavation work being done at the moment, much of it associated with trying to put Metro Line C into place.  (When we were in Rome five years ago helping Mom celebrate her 90^th birthday, they were working on it then … and I’m not sure how much farther they have progressed, because it seems like everywhere they dig, they’re running into something interesting that they didn’t know was there!)  

By the time we had finished the Forum, we still had an hour or so before our Colosseo tour, so decided to head back to the apartment to change clothes. 

As it had been a bit overcast early, we both were wearing pants – and wow, if there was ever a day for shorts, this was it.  R actually ran back through the shower to cool off, and we both changed and felt much, much cooler.  Back to the Colosseo, this time on the good, old #51 – which, I might add, isn’t even on R’s new bus map!  The 51 runs a circle between Porto San Giovanni (just a couple blocks away) and a mysterious lago, but it definitely works for us for this trip; it stops right outside the Colosseo.

Main floor of Colosseo

Waiting for the tour was nice, as it is very cool and comfortable in the enclosed arches on the main floor with a nice breeze wafting in occasionally.  There were probably 20 people or so, of various nationalities (not all English speakers either).  We first went down below the main floor of the Colosseo and saw some of the reconstruction that has been going on (also, an Italian shoe company has donated 25M € to clean the pollution off of the Colosseo, and what a difference it is making!  That place is going to SHINE when it’s finished!) 

It was interesting to see the various structures that had been  We went through one of the tunnels that permitted gladiators and hunters to go right from their “school” across the street directly in to the Colosseo; hmmm…that must have been fun.  Then, we walked up the three flights of very, very steep and slick stairs to level 3, on which work is currently being done, and isn’t yet open to the general public.  Lovely view from above, again, with a great breeze.

built to hold wild animals – with elevators and pulleys, they could open 60 trap doors into the arena above - all at the same time.

Underground corridor

View from 3rd level looking into underground chambers

I am thankful for one thing:  When we were thinking about Colosseo tours, I was considering possibly about booking one that runs at night through a private company – over $110 per person! –  but I thought it might be easier than dealing with the crowds.  But apparently they’re reputed to be very ghoulish and tell you all sorts of things you’d rather not know!  SO happy that I booked with the official website, as our total bill was something on the order of 32€, we had absolutely NO problems with any lines, and we had a trained archeologist give the tour – with no lurid tales attached; very happy! 

View of Forum from 3rd level Colosseo

Finished up around 2:30 p.m. and decided to return to the flat for naps.  (As R pointed out, we are just a few days in to our trip, and still need to recover from jetlag.)  However, we did detour down Appia Nuovo first to our grocery store for more supplies (more bread and salami, juice and cookies…you know, the basics!) and then to Procopio, as one of us was hankering for gelato – two guesses who!  This time, though, I tried a combination of their stracciatella and something they called “Nutella” which was chocolate and
vanilla and obviously, nutella!  It was great!  What a find!  (Editor’s note:  We still have to go back to Blue Ice, from the other night, because their frutti de bosco looked amazing, and I want to try it!)

We’re tentatively thinking of Indian food tonight, as there is a place just down the street that has fabulous reviews … more later!

Lots of love,

m

xxx

PS – Robert wants me to add that somebody who lives either in or around this building REALLY knows how to cook, as the smells coming in the past few days with all the windows open are amazing!

m

xxx