Rome

Day 2

Our second day in Rome started in a park that was once part of the Medici Palace grounds. 

My breakfast greeted me like this.

We wandered around the park for a while, enjoying the break from the dirt and noise of the city.

We walked along paths that looked like this.

 There were fountains scattered throughout.

And we found a hollow tree!

 Now, here comes one of the best parts of my whole trip. I got into the museum you see above, the Galleria Borghese. 

We actually almost didn't make it in. We walked up to the ticket desk and were informed that you have to make reservations to come into the gallery and the next available reservation day was Tuesday, it was Saturday. We were shocked, we just thought this was some small museum in the park, nothing special. The guy at the desk was nice enough to tell us to come back in an hour and he would see what he could do, so we did. When we got back he let us in because of some canceled reservations and man, that was the best luck I've had in years.  

It turns out, inside the Galleria Borghese reside Bernini's three most famous sculptures, David, Apollo and Daphne, and the Rape of Persephone. Bernini has been my favorite sculpture ever since I started learning about art history. His pieces can take my breath away in pictures, you can just imagine how I felt when I saw the real things, espcially my absolute favorite sculpture, the Rape of Persephone. I could not take pictures inside the museum to share with you but if you google them, you will find images easily.  Not only did the gallery house some of Bernini's best works, the walls were lined with baroque paintings from such painters as Caravaggio.  I was in heaven. I would have been happy to stay in the gallery all day, but of course my friends are not quite as enamored with art as I am and so we moved on after a good hour and a half.

We headed back towards the center of Rome and made our way down the Spanish Steps, they were a bit crowded to say the least. 

Finally, after a pit stop for lunch, we made our way to the Colosseum.  It is not as tall as I imagined it would be, but I'll share this picture with you so that you're not all as disillusioned as I am now. When we arrived at the Colosseum all we had to do was find the entrance since we already had tickets but Chase decided that it would be a good idea to take a picture with the guys outside dressed up as Roman soldiers. Now, Chase had been warning us since before we even arrived in Italy to avoid these guys at all costs because they're pick pockets and ex convicts, so it was a little frustrating that he decided to tempt fate.  He and Nick gave Laura their wallets so that they couldn't be pick pocketed and had me take their picture. Now, of course these guys are there to make money so when Chase refused to pay them they were not afraid to come after us. I tried to walk away but one of the soldiers, a really big guy, followed me, yelling about paying them for their services. Finally, Chase pretended to delete the pictures from his camera to get the guys away from us and we made our way inside. So the moral is, don't go near the fake Roman soldiers.

On the way in, Laura pointed out something cool to me. If you look closely, you can see the numbers above the archways directing spectators on which entrance to use.

Inside the Colosseum is pretty amazing. Imagine the whole place covered in white marble; that is how it was when the stadium was in use. 

The floor is now gone so that we can see down into where the animals and gladiators were held underneath.  There really isn't too much to say about the Colosseum. It is simply something that you have to experience. Lets just say that is is very big and very historical feeling.

After we left the Colosseum, we tried to track down a church but ended up in this little park instead.  We did find it later but Nick and I chose to opt out of the tour in order to save money so I have no pictures of it to share.  

After a rather disappointing dinner, we got some gelato and I snapped this quick picture of the Colosseum lit up with red light as it is every night.