Colossal Colosseum

Rome day 1! As I said before, today is our "go to everything in walking distance" day and was it ever the perfect day for that! The temperature was in the 60s! Cannot get much better than that :) We didn't even have to wear our jackets. 

Breakfast was awesome! There was toast, cereal, juice, coffee, tea, croissants, Nutella, jam and yogurt! It does not get much better than that for a European breakfast :)

We started out the day by going to Sma, a local grocery store to buy ingredients for sandwiches, as well as chips and chocolate wafers (can't forget the chocolate)! We then went back to the hotel and decided we were hungry for lunch then so we ate, and was it ever good. Italian salami is great. I wish I could take some home with me but it had to be refrigerated. 

After lunch we began our journey to attempt to get into the Roman Forum. Little did we know that we were by the exit the whole time. 

Sooner than later we wander off to the Colosseum because it was quite obvious where the entrance to that was. We bought an entrance ticket to the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatinum all for 12 euros. What a steal! The first thing we went into was the Colosseum and it was immaculate! Incredible! Old! Awesome! WOW! It is hard to believe that it was built many many many years ago and it is still standing! 

After touring the inside of the Colosseum, we made our way to this great place to catch a snapshot of it from the outside! We also found the Arch of Constantine along the way to the Roman Forum. 

From there we entered the Roman Forum. This place was crazy old and cool because of the architecture. We even got to witness someone taking pictures at a dig sight and other places that were being dug up. All of this happens in the off tourist season, which was a very cool experience!

I got this cool shot by somehow perfectly lining up the sky and the sun with the pillars on the structure! I feel very professional ha.

After completing the Colosseum and Roman Forum (I don't think that we made it to the Palatinum in retrospect) we wandered around town more and then stopped at a local cafe to get coffee and cappuccino. We then went to the grocery store because we wanted some wine and I wanted some bread to eat and returned to our hotel. From there we chilled at the hotel for a bit and I took a nap. We then left at night to go to the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. I made two wishes because I had found a 1 cent piece on the ground earlier in the day and I kept it just for a wish! 

 This is the Pantheon at night. The building was a temple to the gods and was a HUGE one for sure. The inside was very detailed and had some people buried there and lots of artwork. There is a dome in the ceiling that opened up to the sky, which I found to be pretty extraordinary. Outside of the building there is a fountain which was also very beautiful and carved out of stone. The talent that the Romans had truly amazes me.

After the Pantheon we wander further and got to see the Piazza Nuova. The beauty of the city definitely does not stop when the sun goes down. 

Finally it was time for dinner and we ventured off and found a local pizzeria that has been there since 1888. It was called Ricci and it was on a dead end road. We decided it was a good place to go because it was hopping and there were locals everywhere. I ordered a sausage and mushroom pizza. When I was halfway through the pizza I realized that there was no sauce on it. It was still a very good pizza and was quite moist!

After the pizzeria we returned home to our beds at the hotel to sleep a good night's rest!