Standing near the arch of Constantine with the Colosseum behind.
Here it is in all it's splendor
Kids are hungry. Take 10.
Wondering what went on down there.
That was the Roman Colosseum people!!! (Whitney is slow on the uptake)
The polizia ensuring our safety
When we were done with the Colosseum we headed for what we thought was the Pantheon. A super cool building, but not the Pantheon.
This is the Pantheon:
It was commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus as a temple to all the gods of ancient Rome and then was later rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian around 126 AD.
This is the largest concrete dome in the world. It was sprinkling while we were inside so we could see water coming in . It is an open hole looking up to the gods. The building has been used since it was first constructed.
When we left the Pantheon for the Trevi Fountain we came across this pin up calendar of hot Catholic priests.
The Trevi Fountain:
We had lunch here. They say that if you throw a coin over your right shoulder and into the fountain you will return to Rome some day. So of course, we all threw a ceremonial coin. It is called Trevi because it is located at the junction of 3 roads and marks the terminal point where one of the aqueducts supplied water to ancient Rome.
After this, John really wanted to go see the Villa Borghese. We tried to take a bus but since it was Sunday it was hard to find one. We also found out that you needed to make reservations to see the art collection a day in advance. Did that stop us? No! We walked all the way there until we got to the entrance and found a sign saying that they were booked until Wednesday. Did that stop us? No! We went inside the building to the reception desk and asked about reservations. The woman told us that they could only take reservations in advance. Did we turn around then? No! John asked if there was some kind of wait list we could get on and she told us that they'd just had cancellations and we could go in right now if we wanted. Seriously? Ummm, okay. So he bought 4 tickets (when she saw how many kids we had she let us have two for free) and after we checked our bags in we headed happily for the entrance. When they asked for our tickets John could not find them anywhere. We went back and checked through our bags. No tickets. We went to the ticket counter to ask if we had forgotten them. No. Where are those darn tickets?????? Finally John found them in his money belt. Why he put them there we will never know but now it was 4:00 and our session was going to be over at 5:00. You are only allowed to stay in for your 2 hour designated time slot. We hurried through the top floor which had an amazing collection of paintings and then allotted 30 minutes to the second floor for the sculptures. We were sad that our time ran out so fast and I was the last one to walk out when one of the workers called me back and said, "Maam, since you are so interested you can stay for the next session as well. Everyone else is gone so it will be okay if I let just you and your family stay." Seriously? We didn't stay a whole 2 hours more but it was nice to go up and look at the art at a leisurely pace and leave whenever we felt like it.
The Borghese Museum
We wanted to walk around the park after the museum but my feet were spent so we rented this 6 passenger electric bicycle and toured around. Since the kids all wanted to pedal, John and I sat in the middle and relaxed while the kids pedaled around. Because it
was electric it was really only hard to get it started. Then it was easy sailing.
A view of Rome from the park
What drinking fountains in Rome are lacking in quantity is made up for in style.
A cool, water powered clock
When we were done at the park we jumped on a subway and got home around 8:00. We were in desperate need of doing laundry. Since it was Sunday, the laundromats were closed. So John and I spent the rest of the evening washing clothes by hand and hanging them out on the clothes lines to dry. When in Rome...
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