
Turns out these guys wanted 5 euro from each of us. For not speaking italian, we did a good job of talking them down to a single 5, simply by not paying the rest. So there it is, my 5.25 USD photo.


"Coloseo" in italian, the coloseum is absolutely insane; all the holes are where a marble exterior at one point, was plugged in.
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An interior portion, if I remember correctly, it was near the main entrance.

The floor use to sit on top of that bottom area you see, underneath was a maze of rooms & halls where the animals awaiting slaughter were kept. The ascending angled sections sported marble stadium seating.
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Underneath the floor in the deepest depths of the Coloseo. I believe the entire floor was made of wood, therefore rotting away centuries ago (While this is by no means an educated guess, I saw a book that had transparent overlays of the ancient sites, the coloseo containing what closely resembled a wood floor)...
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A view from under the bleachers of shea stadiums' equivelant mezzanine level.

During the duration of our self guided tour in the coloseo we saw 2 cats, quickly named "Colliseum Cat" and "Ancient Kitty"... We also saw this aptly named, "Colliseum Crack".

Hanging out with several members of the opposite sex all day and every day, you find yourself laughing at one pretending to be a tiger in a landmark made famous by the very manly movie Gladiator.

And then you join them. Thumbs down means "Kill the christian".

Vittore Emanuele II, in daylight. We still haven't made it to the top.

A fountain in front of Emanuele.
This is a spot you read about in all the toursit books. The Trevi fountain. It was completely packed... Although we haven't run into many other Americans (we've overheard only a couple of english speakers), it seems as though the tourists that gathered here on this night were from elsewhere in Europe. This place was hot, we intend to return during the day when everyone else goes home. If it's this crowded now I can only imagine what it's like during the heavy tourist months.
Brief glimpse of the ruins:
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The Trevi Fountain crowd.
Supposedly, if you throw a coin into the fountain over your left shoulder, you will someday return to Rome. Personally, I think it's a myth designed to let pickpockets know you're not from around here.
I don't even know if I'm spelling "Trevi" right.
Some footage of the Trevi fountain:
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After Trevi, we returned to the "Piazza del Popolo" (fountain of the people) to climb the steps of "Sta. del Popolo" (I think the sta. is short for statue), a steep set of stairs that leads to Galoppatoio park to check out this areas skyline of Rome. We came across a temporary ice skating rink blaring great american hits by the likes of eminem and Pink; and roman kids riding razor scooters.
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Eminem is popular in Italy; probably all the english this girl knows:
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Over looking Rome, Briana dances:
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Now there's 2 of them:
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We ended up at this restaurant, "Osteria St. Anna" where we ordered Bruschetta & melon, Shrimp Rizzoto and truffle bianche (white) lasagna as our first dishes, and finished it up with Shrimp & Calamari and Steak with pomme something or other (potato) as our second dish. In Italy, you order an appetizer (Bruschetta & melon), a first dish - then a second dish. Not to mention the Vino (wine) & one of 2 choices of water - sparkling or naturale. It's also customary for several members of your dinner party to order the same dish (in this case, each pair of us ordered the same exact meals) in order to take it easy on the cook. While in the US, each member of your dinner party has their own choice of food, it really adds to the quality and attention given to your serving.
The food and atmosphere were amazing. The shrimp on our second plate were huge, complete with head and legs... Calamari with midsections still attached - tentacles and all. If there's any one group of food that freaks me out the most, it's seafood. These things still had eyes.
We took the train home. Rome's transit system is pretty small and I've heard that they stopped trying to expand because when they dig tunnels they keep unearthing ancient ruins. To avoid this, they've gone WAY underground with massive escalotors traveling hundreds of feet below... There's a couple of spots where random, museum style glass enclosures embody marble columns in the subterainian tunnels. The major train lines are covered top to bottom in graffitti
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