A little Roman History

In front of the Forum (or what's left of it)
Day 2: Fri Sept 30.

Hostel kicks us out at 10 am (til 3 pm) -- and I mean literally, 10:01, the cleaning lady's knocking on the door to make sure we're on our way. Alright, alright, I'm going! Relax! Nonetheless, the girls and I go grab breakfast at cafe down the street before they caught their train. Still can't believe they're doing Europe in 3 weeks...madness!

Hung out for a bit and did some trip planning in the common room--I decided to skip Ireland, going down to Amalfi Coast at the recommendation of another hostel guest--found a GREAT hostel there. This does not work out well with the ticket I already bought to fly from Ireland to England--non-refundable. I decided to cut my losses and just stay in Italy and find a cheap flight from here.
An ancient pillar that has every important battle in Roman history carved into it--bottom line: It's really old
Did a 2 pm walking tour of the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Coliseum, which was really neat. It's so crazy seeing these ancient ruins in the middle of a big city...just imagine driving your BMW past thousands of years of history--this would never happen in Canada! These free tours are great--they take you to the important sights, tell you a bit about the history, and you just tip them at the end if you enjoyed it. Our tour ended at the Coliseum so people could go inside if they wanted, but I decided against it. Funds are running dangerously low and I've heard from a lot of people that it's not THAT exciting to see inside. Maybe next trip.

Note to self: turning the flash on during the day means you will look photoshopped in front of whatever historical monument you are trying to prove you saw

What I did do was walk down to try and get registered in cooking class at this restaurant I found online, but it was full. After that mission and a half over the river and through the Circus Maximus (remember Ben Hur? That place), I met up with 2 guys I met on the walking tour, a producer from LA and a teacher from Wisconsin. They had bought the ticket for the Forum and Coliseum which was good for two days, so they gave me their ticket saying I could use it tomorrow if I wanted. Sweet! Maybe I will go in after all.

We had dinner together and swapped some great stories (note to everyone on sleeper trains: get the top bunk, or a man will continuously walk his feet onto your bunk while sleeping on the one beside you--or so I've been told). We had a lot of fun exploring Rome together!

Newer building (1911) that reminded me of the Hofburg Palace in Vienna