The Randalls: Italy, Day 7

Subtitle: “The day of rain.”

I guess it was time for us to have a day where the weather didn’t cooperate. We started out early and made sure we got to the Colosseum right when it opened at 8:30. It started raining about an hour later. But the rain was off and on and was a light drizzle. What to say about the Colosseum? Awesome, comes to mind. The place is huge. Here we are together on the middle level. Unfortunately, we did not know you had to book tickets in advance to go underneath in the newly opened section. Quite disappointing. Oh well.

The Colosseum was everything we thought it would be. Just as big as the Energy Solutions Center, if not bigger. It’s a shame the Popes stole all the marble from the Colosseum to build St. Peter’s. Lazy!

Here’s a better shot of the inside.

We saw the really cool Arch of Constantine.

At this point after finishing the Colosseum, the sky opened up and proceeded to dumb on us for the next couple of hours. This was not good since our entire morning consisted of visiting all outdoor/open sites of the Forum and Palentine Hill. At this time, Mark took over with the picture taking while I tried to be enthusiastic while walking in inches of water with completely soaked feet.

This is my “I’m-not-having-fun face”.

We then proceeded to set the record for fastest Forum visit with over 200 photos. Mark was picture happy, which is probably a good thing since I wanted to go back to the hotel and dry off and drink hot chocolate in my warm, Presidential Suite. So I missed/didn’t care much about the Forum and Palentine Hill. All I know is that there were lots of fallen marble columns and bricks laying around. When we get home, I will have Mark explain all the pictures to me.

Notice on the left the river forming on the walking path. Imagine walking through a lake, in shoes, for 2 hours.

After that, Mark mercifully gave in and we headed back to the hotel so we could dry off. I took a power nap while Mark used the hair dryer on our shoes. Then we were off again. Next up was the Circus Maximus which we found out is used for events; today being no exception. Military equipment littered the entire field so we moved on to the Baths of Caracalla which closes early on Mondays so we struck out on that as well.

We realized we were close to the Bocca di Verita (the mouth of truth). Legend says you stick your hand in its mouth and if you are a liar it will bite off your hand. Luckily we passed with flying colors.

Our next stop was the Vittorio Emanuele (the first king of Italy)monument. Here, we paid some money to ride the elevator to the top to see the amazing view. Here’s what the monument looks like from the ground level.