Day 12 - Rome

Ah, Rome, the City of the Seven Hills, the Sacred City, the Capital of the World, the Eternal City. I have reserved the last day of my trip for a city that would take a week to scratch the surface. Be that as it may, my main focus is the Colosseum, an engineering marvel that has intrigued me since I was a young child. Sharon had booked us a walking tour for 1pm so we had plenty of time to arrive.

Turning our rental car in at the airport, we made our way to one of the many small restaurants and had a quick breakfast of croissant and cappuccino. We then took the Leonardo Express a train that runs on a 15 minute schedule between the Airport and Rome's Termini Station, the central station for Rome's subway, the Metro. On arriving at Termini Station, we decided that it would be good to buy a return ticket at this time since we might be returning in the midst of rush hour.

To get from the Termini to the Colosseum, we would take the Blue Line terminating in Laurentina and get off at the Colosseo station. Simple and easily accomplished. As we exited the station, the Colosseum loomed before us and just to the left an sidewalk restaurant. We wandered the streets looking for our rendezvous point for our tour. Finally locating it we decided to have a quick lunch at the sidewalk cafe before the tour. I ordered my one and only Margarita pizza which, while definitely a pizza, seemed to miss the point. How dissappointing

We proceeded on to our rendezvous point where we met our guide and were issued radio receivers with ear phones for the tour. (You could imagine the background noise with the number of tours going on at any one time and all of the guides talking about different things.)

The Colosseum, also known as the Flavian Amphitheater, lies near the geographic center of Rome and is the largest amphitheater ever built. Started by the emperor Vespasian in 72AD, it was completed in 80AD by his successor, emperor Titus. It could hold around 70,000 spectators and could be filled or emptied in as little as 20 minutes. (Of course, there were no traffic jams as each person just kept walking until they returned home, or, more likely, to the nearest pub.) One of the first freestanding amphitheaters, it is almost 160 ft tall and covers about 2.4 hectares (or about 6 acres). It is constructed of over 3.5 million cubic feet of travertine limestone, set without mortar and held together entirely by iron clamps. The Colosseum was topped with 240 masts supporting retractable awnings to shade the spectators from sun and rain.

The Colosseum is best known for its gladiatorial events and as the site of the martyrdom of many early Christians. However, it also hosted other events, including shows called munera which were given by and at the expense of individuals, often with strong religious content, and as demonstrations of a person or family's prestige. Also popular were animal hunts involving large and deadly animals with movable trees and buildings. They were also used to execute the condemned by sending them into the arena naked and unarmed (and dare I say afraid) where they would be torn apart by wild animals. I wonder if this was thought to be family fare.

In 2013, a €25 million restoration began to clean and repair the structure. The restoration is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.

After the Colosseum, we decided to return to a small outdoor restoranti that we had seen. Here I opted for a pistachio gelato, the chocolate canister being near empty and not looking very appetizing. While we rested we decided that we would see the Vatican. Referring to the map, we noted that the Basilica S. Paulo station was only four stops from the Colosseo.

After arriving and exiting the station, Sharon said that she remembered it to be a fairly short walk to the Vatican. I plugged it into my phone map and discovered that it was a 5km, 1 hour walk! We quickly realized that we did not want to go to St. Paul, but St. Peter. After some research, we realized that we needed to take the Red Line to Ottaviano Station. This meant returning to the Termini and changing lines. (I must say that, at this point I was near beat and was considering giving up. Then I remembered that pilgrims sometimes made the journey on their knees and elbows. What are a few barking dogs to visit the Vatican?)

We walked back to the station, then rode back to the Termini and took the Red Line to Ottaviano. Exiting the station, we had approximately 600m to walk along the Via Porta Agelica to the Vatican. Here I stood in awe in the Piazza San Pietro and gazed at the Vatican Balcony from whence the Pope addresses the multitudes; but I could not help but envision the scene from Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.

Leaving Vatican City, we encountered a gent with a flyer for a local restaurant. When we inquired, he took the time to personally escort us to the Trattoria Marcella where I ordered the €10 special with salad, bread and choice of pasta dish (I chose Bolognese). Sharon went with another that included seafood and pasta and a plate of fried seafood, including calamari and shrimp. I informed her not to expect me to eat any leftover calamari since I had never found any that I really liked. However...it turned out that the calamari was tender and sweet, with a light batter and without a heavy fried taste. In fact, I wound up eating about half of it including much of her shrimp that, while fried in the shell, proved to be perfectly edible without peeling them. This is apparently what calamari should be. I just hope that it hasn't fooled me into buying a lot of crappy calamari in the future looking to rediscover this dish.

As I left the restaurant, I realized that the dogs were not complaining and that I felt revitalized. While part of this could be attributed to the excellent repast and particularly the calamari, I had actually felt reinvigorated as I was standing in St. Peter's Square. Curious.

We proceeded back to the Metro station where we discovered that we had, in fact, waited until rush hour to head back to the house. While mass transit may be good for the planet, it's not so good for the soul. However, we toughed out and made it back where we would face packing for our return to the States on the morrow.