Our hotel is down the street from the Pantheon, once a temple -- twice it burned down -- to the Roman gods and now a Catholic Church.
The inscription says this building was built by Marcus Agrippa, which isn't true because Marcus built one of the ones that burned down and they just used the same inscription when they rebuilt.
We took a taxi to the Colosseum to meet our tour guide, our fourth tour of the trip. This was an eight-person tour with four couples and our guide. Here she is standing near one of the other couples.
Nicole is convinced that this dude paid for his wife. I'm not sure, but he very well may have. What a weirdo, he was, asking strange questions every five minutes.
Some were just dumb. "Did the emperor walk up these steep steps at the Colosseum with everyone else?"
Uh, no. This was after the guide just had explained that the emperor had his own special seat in the front row. So, no he didn't walk with the common folk up the steep steps.
Anyway, the guide told us that the emperor thumbs up or down to determine if the gladiator lived or died was made up by Hollywood. The emperor did give thumb signals, but more likely for something simpler, like to show if he was impressed with the fighting tactics of a particular gladiator.
I took a moment of silence for all our fallen Christian brethren who were killed in this ampitheater some 1,800 years ago.
There was a stage the gladiators fought on, but that didn't survive. There is a modern half-stage to give visitors a sense of the fighting platform. Now viewable is this underground system of tunnels the Romans used for the gladiators to enter from their school house -- yeah, they trained at a school.
Up next was the Roman Forum, the center of life in ancient times. We learned that each time a war was won by the Romans, an arch was built for the Romans to march through to celebrate the victory.
That's the Constantine arch, built after Constantine won a civil war and became emperor. He legalized Christianity in 313.
This is from the arch of Titus, showing Romans with a menorah taken after they destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem in the first century.
The guide told us the basic story of Julius Caesar, focusing on a group of senators plotting against the Salad Man and assassinating him. Here's his tomb. He's cremated.
My favorite story she told was of two brothers who were declared emperor together when their father died, but one killed the other and tried to erase his name from history.
I forgot their names. Cain and Abel, maybe? No, that's a bit older. Hehe.
A wide view of the Roman forum.
We then took a 20-minute walk to the Pantheon, with Nicole stopping the guide at one point to ask if some columns were the back of the Pantheon.
"No," said the guide. "We're not at the Pantheon yet."
I bought two waters from a street salesman. He started at two euro each, and I got him down to three euro for two. I gave him a 10 and waited for my seven euro in change.
That's when he tried to scam me. He gave me seven coins and started to walk away. "Excusi," I said, speaking Italian for one word. "This is four euro. I need seven."
He had given me a one euro coin and six 50 euro cent coins. Not on my watch, buddy.
His scam continued as he took two of the 50 euro cent coins and replaced them with ones. That only added one euro. Still short two.
This process kept going several more times, like we were on some sort of game show until I moved my hand away and said, "I have six euro. Give me one more."
After finally getting the correct change, I realized my group and guide had walked about 200 meters down the road without me.
Speaking of roads, they say all roads lead to Rome. But I ask you, if you're already in Rome, then where do the roads lead?
At the Pantheon, we were told that it honored the gods until 609 when it was given to the pope and converted to a church.
It has no windows, just a hole at the top where rain is let into the building. They can't close it because the structure would then collapse.
The rain drains in these little holes in the marble. Red marble was the most expensive building tool back in the day.
The painter Raphael is buried in the Pantheon (shown below). His bitter, bitter rival was Michaelangelo, which is funny because the turtle versions of those two have the most special bond of the four heroes in a half shell -- Turtle Power!
That ended our tour. The rest of the day was Nicole and I exploring Roma, getting a little lost -- we accidentally ripped up our map -- and making sweet, sweet honeymoon memories.
We went to the Spanish Steps -- under construction -- and the Trevi Fountain, where you throw coins into the water. Here are some beautiful pics, and I'm not just talking about the fountain.
Stacey, are you satisfied that this entry has more pictures?
We discovered I'm an expert haggler. I think. We bought a selfie stick and sunglasses from separate street vendors, who are in their own little world on the Roman streets, selling some of the most random shit I've ever seen.
Nicole brought a $20 selfie stick that didn't work, and boy, was she bummed. She wanted me to get one off the street, so we ask a vendor how much.
12, he says.
No, that's too much.
Ok, how much?
But we walked away, knowing he would follow us. OK, eight, he says. I turn around. "I can only do three."
Eight?
Three, I said.
OK.
I give him three euro. He stares at his hand.
Eight.
We just agreed to three, I said.
He sulked back to his stand.
Later, Nicole broke her sunglasses, so she tries on these fake Ray-Bans and likes them enough. Vendor says 25.
We play the same game.
No.
How much? 20?
We walk.
He chases. 15?
We can do seven, I said.
10?
We walk away again.
OK, seven.
So we paid 10 euro total for a selfie stick and sunglasses. Starting total price was 37 euro.
I wonder if this works at home. When I get back, I'm going to the Jaguar dealership, pointing at the $37,000 model, slapping down $10,000 in cash and driving off. Should work, right?
We happened upon a church called SS. Ma Trinita. So beautiful. Here's the ceiling art.
When we were discussing Italy with Pan and Nikki at pizza making school back in Sorrento, Pan told me to get a suit made in Rome. High quality, he said.
I didn't do that, but I did buy a pretty sweet jacket. They tailored it. "Perfecto," said the guy at the store. You can't tell, but it's blue.
We capped off the day with dinner and ice cream. We got beef fillet from this high-rated steak place -- Baccano -- near where we were for most of the day.
It was really, really good. Tender, tender. Comparable to most good steak places I've eaten at, except the portion was small. But that's nitpicky.
You can see a fry on the edge of my plate. We split the side, and it was also damn good. Had a little crunch to it and tasted sort of like a baked potato.
For gelato I got two scoops: Snickers flavor and chocolate. Nicole got stracciatella and mint. It was our seventh ice cream stop of the honeymoon, every day except Monday. So good.
And that's Rome. I don't know if we quite conquered it, so don't go building an arch in front of 817 for our return.
But I think the emperor would have given us the thumbs up.
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