italy day three: rome wasn't built in a day (and if you tried to see it all in one your feet might fall off)

Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration. We certainly didn't get to see everything in Rome - not anywhere close, I'm sure.


Since we were only in Rome for two and a half days, however, we really had to cram in experiencing all of the "must see's" during that time. The result was a walking tour of Rome that lasted about eight hours, during which we saw the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Trevi Fountain and numerous other significant monuments and buildings. We could have spent a number of days seeing all that, but there just wasn't time. I'm definitely glad we were able to see all of those things, but at the time I was quite exhausted!

Trevi Fountain
I tossed a coin into the Trevi Fountain, which according to tradition means that someday I will go back to Rome :) 

Arch of Titus 

The Pantheon 

The Colosseum

One reason that the long tour of Rome was enjoyable was that we had a great tour guide. Sylvio was rather crazy - in the best way possible. If you're ever in Rome and see a man in a hat who seems to know everybody and is drinking an energy drink, that might be him.


When the tour was finally over and I went back with three of the girls, we ended up having quite an experience. Since we were so tired of walking, we decided to take the Metro back (we had ridden some on the Metro the day before so we fairly familiar with the system). Unfortunately it was apparently the time of the day when the Colosseum closed, and it was unbelievably crowded. When it pulled up for us to get on, it was already crowded but we got on and people kept pushing to get inside. We were so smushed and closer than we wanted to be with strangers. When we finally got off, we decided that it was quite the cultural experience (and one that we'd really rather not have again).