Roma!

Alright Rome Rome Rome. First impressions-stinky, dirty, confusing, unorganized and dangerous. The term 'when in Rome do like the Romans' I feel can be directly connected to pedestrian crossings. The area we are staying has very few cross walks, so you basically run when you feel you can safely make it across. To Jess and I this is never, so we have learned to follow the people around us. Very unsafe, but in an unorganized city like Rome it is all you can do. I hope we survive. Everyone thought we'd get stolen, but if anything I think our biggest danger is getting hit by some sort of a vehicle.
Our B&B is just a room in an apartment, which is nice not to have to bunk for once, but I miss the good breakfasts we have been getting at hostels. The complimentary breakfasts here are all prepackaged carbs and sugars, and in a place like Rome with bakeries and fresh fruit this is a disgrace. But it's free, so can't really complain too much. Our room is clean, we have a tv that has MTV (some english shows) and a clean bathroom. And we checked- no bed bugs. After the feast they had on us in Venice I would never want to have bed bugs again. The location of the B&B is very far away from everything except the basilica of st john lateran, the 'most ancient church in the world' and also a place where popes used to live for a short period of time! Which is neat. But it's a half hour walk to the colosseum, an hour walk to basically everywhere else. Thank God (literally since it's Rome- hugely religious) we like to walk. We better be super fit after this trip!
We went for a walk on the first night and saw the colosseum and all the ruins around it, then stopped and got some groceries. We have decided to save some money by eating cereal for dinner for a few nights, we will eat like kings in florence! Plus I have no idea how much I have spend and really don't want to go over budget :( too many things to pay for when I get home.. Not to think about now, but still gotta be smart.
We walked past the colosseum, which by the way is absolutely amazing, crazy to actually see in person, but exactly what I expected it to be. It fits perfectly among all the ruins and the gardens that surround it, and the history of it is just chilling. So many animals and people died fighting there, not to mention epic gladiators. I read that in AD 80 (the year it opened) they held 100 days of fights where over 9000 animals died and thousands of humans fought to the death. I could never imagine watching two people fighting to the death. Just brutal. Anyways we walked past it, to the trevi fountain. I threw a coin in and made a wish of course. The water was so clear and the fountain so pristine. And, surprise!, scattered with tourists like ourselves.  We then tried to navigate the streets and find the Spanish steps, where we got harassed by a boy trying to sell flowers. If it's a 'gift' why do we have to pay?! Dumbie. Anyways Spanish steps, big, clean, full of tourists. We climbed them and from the top there is an amazing view of the whole city, as well as the vatican. And directly across is the designer shopping street! Oh how I wish I were rich. We follow a path into a beautiful park from the top of the steps where we sit and enjoy the weather and wait for Kevin (our travel friend from Venice) to find us! After we meet up with Kevin we take a walk down the river, then eat some nasty pasta and find the pantheon. And I get turned down from entering by the ice cream police- out to crush dreams across Italy. But eventually i down my gelato (it was gelato-o-clock what can a girl do?) and enter and feel the power of the building. I can't even imagine what it must have been like to have been sitting in while worship was taking place there. It is a huge building with many shrines to the gods.
The thing with Rome is you can walk in any direction and you will hit an ancient building. Which is very rare for a city, as we should all know in Canada. Whether it be an ancient wall or an important building, Rome is just scattered with history. This history can mainly be found in the Roman Forum (the ruins next to the colosseum). This is mainly where the political, commercial and religious buildings stood, and it is mainly all torn down, mainly because of earthquakes, but many columns still stand and you can also find many large pieces of the buildings on the ground. It would have been crazy to be standing in this area when Rome was in it's peak of power. I can only imagine the statues and giant buildings showing off the fortune and power of the Roman empire. It is crazy how powerful they were. On the street walls of the forum they have the Roman empire over the course of it's power and how it grew over the years, not comparable at all to anything today. I just love being in a place so rich with history.
We also visited the colosseum, which is a must do in Rome. Over 2/3 of the original building was destroyed or used for other purposes so what we saw was only a fraction of what it was in its' prime. The size of it is probably comparable to the saddledome, just a lot more impressive. It's one thing to see pictures of it, but to see it with your own eyes is another thing. Obviously the pictures look just like it but you can never imagine the size of the building itself. And the whole thing is covered in holes that we all speculated were from mussolini getting mad and punching the walls, but really it's from the travertine marble that covered the walls when it was originally built. The whole floor was opened up to show the chambers below, and a section of the stage was reconstructed to show the grandeur of what it was at one point. It would have been a terrifying event to be under the stage waiting to be fought and most likely killed. I can't imagine it would have been well lit either which adds to the barbaric nature of the whole thing. But either way the colosseum stands to remind us of how grand the Roman Empire was. It took us over an hour to go through the whole thing, you could have easily spent a few more if you wanted to analyze all the details and if you knew more about the structure, of which we did not. Oh and for anyone going to Rome, the line for the colosseum is crazy, but you can easily skip it if you did what we did. The night before we went into the roman forum, where you buy tickets that last 2 days and get you into the colosseum as well as an archeologist site. So just get tickets the night before somewhere else and you get to skip the whole line.
After the colosseum we went for a walk around the ancient city centre. We walked past the race track, saw the UN building, and eventually found a pub where we ate a less than average meal (surprise since we were in a pub right;)?) and continued on until we decided to go and check out the archeological site. Which by 3 there are no lines anywhere, another travel tip right there- go mid afternoon. This was a very fascinating site, it was more of the every day roman town, with the exception of the temples, fountains and huge gardens. They had a terrace that overlooked the whole city and the colosseum and it was just one of those moments that cameras can't even come close to capturing the pure beauty of the place. Rome is indescribably full of beauty, you just have to go to experience it. There are probably only two spots that capture the full view of Rome, and this was one of them.
On the walk home we come across people trying to recruit tourists to come on a pub crawl. So of course we do it, part of knowing a city is knowing the night life. It ends up being okay, us as Canadians have to show our true drinking game talents so we partook in some flip cup/ beer pong action, kicked butt then just went around to a few more clubs. Nothing fancy going on there. Met a lot of people, saw a lot of sites on the walks around, including a pyramid- who knew Rome had a pyramid? We ended up walking home at the end of the night- literally across town. And we didnt get stabbed or stolen :) thanks Kevin!!
Yesterday we did a bunch of walking around. Ate some delicious risotto, shopped, then saw the trevi fountain and the Spanish steps again, and went to a park where we rented a 2 person bike and reaped havoc. I was designated bell ringer, Kevin did all the peddling and Jesska's side didn't work so we were just along for the ride. We found a chariot race track and raced around it, went down a hill and had to push the bike back up, saw many gorgeous fountains and monuments. It was a truly fun time. This park also had an amazing view of the entire city, especially St. Peter's basilica and the vatican. And on the way home we ran into a shabby old man selling corn on the cob of which he roasted on his little BBQ :) so delish and reminded me of taber corn!
And today we are off to the Vatican. Of which I am very excited for. I will be saying a prayer and light a candle for Miles in St. Peter's basilica, so hopefully God listens more in super holy places.