Livonia Brown and the ancient city... III

Well Constant Reader, we have come to the final day of the Roman adventure. One of the more anticipated moments of my life. For as long as I can remember I have wanted to go to Rome and see the Colosseum. The most notable monument in the history of Rome. It also helps that every day at least twice we would come by the Colosseum to build up our anticipation. Sunday was the day I got to go inside! We got up at 7am with great anticipation and headed to the metro hoping that our 24 hour pass would still be good if we got there before 8:15. Of course out tickets had expired even before 8:15, or we just started later on Saturday than we thought. Regardless another €1 and we were on our way. Our British roommates had told us the queue (hah) was horrendous when they tried to get into the Colosseum. We of course had the trusty backup of paying off a tour group for cuts.

We got there around 8:15 thinking it opened at 8 and expecting a massive line. Apparently nobody gets up that early in Rome since they're all having dinner at 10pm to avoid the heat. So we were within the first 2 dozen people in line. Jen held our spot while I wandered off to check what time it really did open and snap a few photos (as if I didn't already have enough). In the end I found out it opened at 8:30 so we only had to wait about 20 minutes before we got our first view of the inside.
As I passed through the archway into the main area I got goose bumps. Apparently the hype and anticipation got to Jen too as she had the same feeling. We commenced our round of the main level taking tons of pictures. Jen had run out of space on her memory stick and I couldn't haggle a street vendor down to a reasonable price so she spent some time deleting other stuff just for this.

Without a guide or any real direction our next mission was to find the stairs leading to the second level for a better birds eye view of the Colosseum. It was spectacular and I don't really have the words to describe how awesome it was to be there. We simply sat down for a while and pondered what it would have been like back in the day... neither of our imaginations yielded much. As we were getting ready to leave Jen was on a mission to find a stone to take out to her sister and I was on a mission to find a suitable place to builder where I wouldn't get thrown out just yet. After completing our missions we took a slow stroll out having succeeded in our main objective, finally...
Unfortunately, as cool as the rest of the trip was, it pales in comparison to the Colosseum. We rounded out our day by going through the Palatine hill and the Roman Forum. You can see many of the interesting structures here, with a view of the Colosseum of course, from the top of the Palatine hill. The next photo shows many temples and such still standing from the time of the Romans. A list of the temples/layout of the area can be found online, but yes I saw it all ;-)

After many, many miles walked with sore legs and empty stomachs we made one final loop of the area. We had some excellent sandwiches in a little air conditioned cafe. We stopped near Trajan's column for an ice cream break and some rest. Slowly we made it back to the Colosseum to sit on the exterior and watch the passersby and soak in the experience. I actually bought some souvenirs on this trip so there's consolation prizes for the comment of the week contest.

After another lunch break it was time to say goodbye to Rome and begin our misadventure home. We hurried to catch the train back to the airport only to find an enormous line to get tickets. Flying with Germanwings and only 1 flight out of Rome for the entire day meant all of the passengers had to go to the desk. Jen set her painting down and had to run back and get it when we got to security. Our flight ended up getting delayed and we didn't get back to Germany until about 10:30. We got to the S13 train to the Köln hauptbahnhof where our journey began. On the subway back to my apartment Jen realized she forgot her painting on the train, so we all have to send well wishes to her for her loss :-( Finally after taking her back to Heiligenhaus I got back and to sleep around 2am. It's cold here and started raining as soon as we got back to my apartment... But the trip was worth it...