Italia - {Rome cont..}

Day 2 in Rome was a little bit of a bummer because like I said before everything was closed :(  We still decided to book a tour that took us to the to St Paul's Basilica, St Peter in Chains church, the Roman forum and the Colosseum.  The churches weren't closed so we did get to walk through them.  It was a rainy day.  As we sat on the tour bus waiting for the other tourists we were picking up we noticed this guy in the street.

He would wait for a red light then literally go in the middle of the street where the cars were stopped and sit there and bounce this soccer ball off his head over and over.  Then when the light turned green, he would ask for tips.  Our tour guy said this guy is here 7 days a week, from 8 AM to 8 PM doing this same thing.  So when you think your job sucks, just remember, you could be making a living by standing in the streets of Rome bouncing a soccer ball on your head.

First stop on the tour was St Paul's Basilica.  It is located outside the walls of Rome.  It is believed to be the site of Paul's tomb.  The church was originally built in the 370s and expanded in the 5th century.  Through the years the church was modified and changed and fixed but it stood for 1435 YEARS until a fire almost completely destroyed it in 1823. It was rebuilt and that's the church that stands today.

The alter is believed to be directly over Paul's tomb.  This opening shows the tomb through the glass.

Next we went to St Peter in chains church.  It gets it's name because it holds the chains from Peter's imprisonment; both from when he was in prison in Rome and also in Jerusalem.  According to legend, they had the chains there from when he was in prison in Rome and were given the chains from when he was in prison in Jerusalem. They were comparing the 2 and they miraculously fused together....

Here's the chains

This church also houses Michealangelo's statue if Moses.

Next stop was the Roman forum.  Every Roman city had a forum in the center of town where all the important stuff went down.  Here, there are ruins of ancient government buildings and such.

Finally, our tour ended at the Colosseum.  Now is when we were really sad about this dang Labor day thing.  We got to walk around the Colosseum but couldn't go inside :(  It's crazy what went down in there long long ago.

After the Colloseum, we walked back to the hotel.  We ate at a nice restaurant across the street from our hotel called Cafe Veneto.  They had a 4 course meal for a set price, unfortunately it didn't have English on the menu, but we still decided to just go for it.  Our first course came, great!  Second course, yum!  Then came the 3rd course...  At first glance it looked ok, then we started questioning what it actually was.  Kinda looked like noodles with sauce, kinda looked like cheese.  I decided I better google it to see what it was I was about to put in my mouth.  Trippa all romano; made with tripe, which is the edible offal from the stomachs of various farm animals.  Gag!  I couldn't do it, not even a bite.  I swear it smelled like farm animals.  Trent was mortified to send a full plate back, but we just couldn't do it.  Dessert was some kind of berries and cream stuff, pretty good.  After dinner we walked around a bit, then got our last serving of gelato.  One last night at the Grand Hotel Flora, then it was back on an airplane to find my own bed.  Goodbye Rome!

Although the trip was pretty quick and rushed, and despite all the second hand smoke I breathed while there, it was a blast!  Rome is so intriguing and mysterious.  I now know why people say you could spend years there and not see everything.  So much history.  I definitely want to go back to Italy someday.  Trent really wanted to see Pompei but there was just no way to fit it in, so hopefully someday we'll get to.  Until next time...