Even walking to the Colleseum, we started to feel the flavor of Roman landscape and architecture.
As you approach the Colleseum there is a large archway structure that, to be honest, I remember nothing about except that it looked pretty cool.
We made sure our earpieces were on so that we could hear our tour guide and began the long process to enter the Colleseum.
The lines were long and slow-moving but it was nice to admire some of the structure as we entered.
Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and nice, and she filled our ears with facts as we explored and marveled at the ancient structure around us.
It was incredible to view such a piece of history from ancient times. And the scope of the building was impressive.
I tried to imagine myself back in time watching gladiators and animals facing off. I don't think I would have enjoyed the brutality at all.
It was easy to wonder about the men their stories as we saw the bars of their prisons.
High up in the Colleseum, we had great views of the surrounding city and the Roman Forum, which we were about to head to next.
Inside the Roman Forum, we began to view the structures of this political and religious Roman region. Or what remains of them, anyway.
The Forum was one of the most frustrating parts of our trip. We were supposed to stay with our group and tour guide, and as knowledgeable as our tour guide was, she was slow and highlighted only what she wanted to as we stood around her. I longed to wander off and explore the gardens and grounds on my own. She also talked with such a thick accent that it was hard to understand at times and the earpiece and constant noise were giving me a serious migraine.
Eventually, I did wander off on my own to see a small section of the Forum we were missing, but we still missed quite a bit of the area as we stood with our tour guide.
As we toured Rome, this is how you would find Brigham the majority of the time: recording as much as possible.
The columns, ruins, and buildings were still a sight to behold. Even if we couldn't see all we wanted.
We finished up in the Roman Forum and had an hour of free time for a lunch break. Brigham and I found a place for more pizza and some of the best gelato on the trip. Then we met up with our group again to see the Trevi Fountain.
The fountain was large and magnificent. In this picture you get a sense of that. However, what you miss is the sense of the magnitude of people surrounding the Trevi Fountain!
So crowded! And our tour guide said this was nothing compared to the peak season. I couldn't imagine it. Already it was hard to walk around and I don't think I would enjoy it at all if it was hotter and even busier.
Weaving through the streets of Rome, we migrated from the Trevi Fountain to the Pantheon and saw various columns along the way.
The Pantheon was an interesting building with a hole in the roof and drains in the floor for water to drain when it rains.
The Pantheon was a former temple and now is used as a church.
Dusk started setting in as we walked by the site where Julius Ceasar was assassinated.
I had just finished reading a book on Roman history and it was fascinating to see where some of the most infamous events took place.
We then made way to the square designed by Leonardo Da Vinci and climbed the steps to see the shape the Rome temple was inspired from.
We dared Brigham to climb the stairs of the church next to the square and he took up the challenge.
It was a lot of stairs and Brigham went pretty fast. I was impressed.
Exhausted, my head pounding, our minds full of tidbits of history, we made our way back to the bus. And even as we walked through the town we couldn't escape the ancient architecture around us.
If I had to pick one word to describe Rome I would probably pick full. Full of history, full of wonders, full of crowds of people. We sighed with relief as we made it to our hotel and prepared for our final night in Italy before we flew home.
We had a moment where Mom and I were in hysterics as Brigham and an Italian worker tried to fix the shower that was only producing one temperature of water. Unfortunately, the language barrier took awhile to get through as Brigham and the man just kept repeating the same words back to each other: "Ice"/"Cold". Over and over and over again. Poor Brigham was getting so frustrated trying to communicate the cold switch and the poor Italian worker kept saying cold for hot. They sounded like a couple of kindergarteners. It was so funny that Mom and I laughed for hours. Mom couldn't stop laughing the whole time she was showering once it was fixed. Anytime anyone said "Ice" the next day, we would start all over again.
It was a good thing the shower was fixed because unfortunately Brigham was hit with some serious food poisoning in the middle of the night. It was terrible! Ten minutes before we were to get on the bus to the airport he was still in the bathroom throwing up while trying to shower.
I felt bad for him as he was so, so sick and we were due to be flying for 12+ hours. I also felt a little sorry for myself as I had to sit next to him, terrified he'd throw up or have an accident at any moment. There were so close calls, and he didn't smell so great, but we made it home without anything terrible happening. After talking to some of the other people from our cruise, apparently, quite a few people came down with food poisoning as well. Mom and I said prayers of thanks that we had escaped that plague.
Our first leg of the trip home included a layover in Switzerland. Our plane was delayed in landing so our pilot treated us to a flyover of the Swiss Alps.
Oh, it was so beautiful! I would go back there to explore in a heartbeat. I loved it.
Then it was an eleven-hour flight to LA, where we flew directly over Seattle. I felt like crying knowing we'd have to board another plane to get us home that night when we were flying over home right then. I wanted to just have them drop us off real fast. "I'll just parachute on down!" I wanted to demand. I was so done flying. But six movies later, we landed in LA, no worse for the wear, and boarded our final flight home to Washington.
If we look tired and gross, well, we were. We were on the last leg of a go-go-go trip and we were ready to be home. But we made it. I swore I would never fly again.
Our vacation was a whirlwind with crazy factors thrown in including Mom's hurt shoulder, food poisoning, jet lag, etc. Now I've traveled out of the country and I've seen incredible things with two of my favorite people. I would plan it differently in the future, but we definitely got our bang for our buck, packing as much in in ten days as possible. Now that time has gone by and the jet lag and exhaustion have worn off, and I'm filled with rosey memories, I find myself wishing to go back and see more. It was hard and great and tiring and wonderful. I feel so blessed at our opportunity and I'm eager to get out there and see more of what the world has to offer!
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