Today had to be the best day of sightseeing we've had so far. I started the day with a very long run of maybe 10 miles, from about 6am to 7:45am. It felt good to run after a couple days off. I started by running through St. Peter's Square - just a stone's throw from our hostel. From there I ran through a very nice neighborhood full of wrought iron fences, 20 foot brick walls (very old brick), and nice homes. I ended up in a very large park that had some really amazing statures and a building and yard with some incredible hedges trimmed in a random weaving patterm. I wished I had my camera!
From there I ran back through Rome to Vatican city and completed a loop around the outside. I ran around the perimeter of an entire country this morning! The city was already bustling with activity by 7am and people were lining up to get into the Vatican Museum by 7:30, thought it doesn't open until 8:45.
Abel and I got ready for a day of sightseeing and took the Metro to the Roman Colloseum. We stepped out of the Metro station, and there it was, looking as big as the Metrodome, but 2000 years older! We used the Rick Steves' audio guide, which helped us understand a little better what we were looking at. The lines were long, but after a half hour or so, we found ourselves inside and it was quite the experience. The Colosseum was built around 70 AD and took about 10 years. To think that the Romans built this gigantic structure without modern equipment is unfathomable. There is apparently some doubt about whether Christians were actually thrown to the lions in this Colosseum or not, but they certainly were in others.
After wandering around the first and second level of the Colosseum, we made our way out to the Roman Forum. This huge area of ruins was the center of ancient Rome and the imagination runs wild thinking of what it was really like. Temples to various gods and Caesars, a main street, court yards, arches, and lots of other ruins are everywhere. A person would need a full day and a really good book to do justice to this place. The history represented here is absolutely unbelievable.
It was a very hot day - sunny and perhaps in the 90s, so by the time we took the Metro back to the hostel around 3pm, we were tired! We ate a late lunch, lounged around a bit, and then decided to head to a neary by castle (St. Anthony's) right on the Tiber river. Near the castle was an outdoor market where vendors were selling anything from clothing to jewlrey to dried fruit. We had a very relaxing time of meandering around the castle, market, and a nearby building (gigantic) which we supposed was the Roman courthouse.
We got home around 7pm and had a quiet evening of reading and I took a stroll around the neighborhood.
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