Maestro On The Move: Rome Day 3: a lotta Roman Terra Cotta

Ciao!

This is what I saw when I got off the Metro at the Colosseum today

And this is what went though my head....

Actually, that's not how my day started, I just wanted to be sure the picture of the Colosseum showed up first and not this....

Which is the church in my neighborhood where I did attempt to attend Mass, but I had just missed one Mass and the other was an hour and half later. I had things to do, so I moved on. I did get to Mass, though. But that's another blog entry.

Anyhow, before I even got to the church, which was near the Metro, I had breakfast at the hotel and bought my train ticket to Venice. The lady at the front desk was more than helpful to facilitate this and I was thankful. I got on the Metro, I had to take two trains to get there (and the second line was hot and gross) and got to the Colosseum. My first reaction was - man this is big! Then I wondered why they would be restoring something as ancient as this, messing with it, etc...

Then I realized that if we want these historic and important artifacts to live on, renovation and cleaning, etc needs to be done. I got in line and purchased my ticket and went inside. There really are no works to describe something like this.

"Backstage" which is actually underground - I know this because I read the section in the Rick Steve's book on the Colosseum. I should have listened to the podcast on the Colosseum but I thought I'd left my headphones in my other pants. Turned out I had them all along, but found out later that night. So, I took some time and read about it in a cool corridor.

Panoramic shots. Just remembered I can do this with my iPod

Another random pic

I climbed the stairs to the second level and got some nice views

Colosseum selfie and a weird piece of art

So, it was REALLY hot, and standing around that rock and stuff made it even hotter. So I decided that I didn't need to see the Forum, more rock for fighting, etc, so I decided to get back on the Metro and begin the next part of my day that I had planned.

The next part of the day was dedicated to checking out locations found in the book/movie "Angels and Demons" I've reserved a separate blog entry for this.

At the end of my tour I ended up near St. Peter's again. What a treat. I walked into the square again, not cowded this time and took some more pictures.

Here are some random pics from today

Disney store opening in September!!

This caught my eye...

Great street musicians, especially the accordion.

Speaking of street musicians, there were these two kids on the Metro today - one on an african drum and one on accordion, they were fun. Probably no more than 12 years old, I have a video, but I'll post it on Facebook when I get home.

At some point during the day, I stopped at a cafe for a respite. I had a Cafe Freddo... which is cold espresso with sugar and cream. And of course, I had COLD water.

Nuns having Sunday evening gelato.

This is actually a smoothie shop.

After my day of treasure hunting around Rome, I decided to take slow walk back to my neighborhood, via the waterless Trevi and the Spanish Steps. On the way home, I had my last dinner in Rome. Complete with 2 glasses of wine.

Pics of dinner

2 glasses of white wine, capresese salad ans sausage and fries