Our first stop was in Rome to explore ruins and plazas. I swear Rome has more history within a few blocks than anywhere else I've ever been. They have incorporated parts of ancient and more recent history into current and modern buildings, built the buildings around old crumbling brick walls, made viewing platforms and fenced off the frames and columns remaining from once beautiful temples. It was quite impressive. The first thing we did was wander through preserved Roman ruins from the Roman Golden Age - although some of the buildings had been converted after Christianity was introduced, which is why you see a lot of crosses. The tiny black dots in this first picture next to the triple archway structure are people, to give you some perspective of size.
This was an archway next and in the background the remaining columns from the Temple of Saturn:
And of course, we did the necessary Colosseum. This was as large and as impressive as you can imagine. Even more interesting is that apparently all of the marble that used to line the outside of the structure were taken and used for churches elsewhere in Rome, leaving behind the pitted holes you see on the outside walls, where iron hooks were used to hang the marble panels on:
From the inside it's interesting to see pictures and or browse 'then and now' books to really get an understanding for what was there (seats and statues and friezes) and what is there now. The stadium, even when it was built, had a wooden floor that they would raise animals up through it, and the recreation of that is in this top corner where you can see that fence. Underneath where all of the rows of walls are is where the prisoners, gladiators, animals, etc were, though apparently there are tunnels that lead out of the underground section and the better gladiators lived outside of to Colosseum.
That night we wandered through the city and found a couple of arches, several fountains, churches and a temple. We also stumbled across what used to be an old theater, which was converted from the inside to still be used as a theater. They were selling tickets for a concert inside this building as we walked by:
We had dinner at Navona Piazza (Navona Plaza) as per suggestion of a couple people and watched a mime "steal" someone's bike and imitate various people walking down the street, as well as street artists painting with oil paint, watercolors and spray paint. Our goal was actually to get to the Fountain of Trevi and see it lit up at night. We were lucky (in a way) that they were cleaning trash from the fountain while we were there, so I got to get a couple of pictures with no people blocking the fountain. Even late at night, it was CROWDED. Jackie said this is where you're supposed to throw coins in over your shoulder to ensure you return to Rome, so like good little tourists we did. ;)
And that was the end of day one!
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