UI'd bought the Roma Pass before we went on holidays so we could be prepared. In theory it's great but this time it didn't work in our favour. I'd tried to set aside time with Eric to choose 4 places for each day but it never came to fruition. So there we were on the morning of the 20th our third full day in Rome not really knowing what we wanted to do apart from going to the Colosseum complex. We decided not to walk since it was half an hour and we were exhausted before we'd even begun.
Termini first then the Blue B Metro line we got off at the Colosseo stop and Roma Pass in hand walked straight in. It was awesome not lining up! We were getting used to being able to touch the same walls and columns that had been leant on by tired spectators thousands of years ago. Coming from Australia that has 200 years of white settlement it was very surreal.
We spent our first hour on the first floor reading all the information on the displays and admiring excavated little things such as charred bread. It is a shame but to get into the lowest section you have to come with a tour guide. They aren't expensive but they rush through. After our Vatican City experience I just didn't want any pressure. I wanted to be able to breathe in the moment and to bind it to my memories.
Eric unpacked our picnic and we plonked ourselves on a large roughly hewn marble block and ate while enjoying the temperate weather and the cloudless sky. We accessed all the areas possible wirh our plebian tickets and 3 hours later were ready to move on. We tried to find the gate of Titus but although we asked instructions from several people it seemed impossible to find.
I decided that there was no option but to do a tour. I had overheard a hawker selling a tour for €15 for all three stes ao I offered €10 for the two sites provided that we were able to continue looking after the tour had been completed. Price was agreed upon and we had to jog to catch up with the tour at the entry gate.
As at the Vatican the guide was a marvelous introduction. This fellow was a dual citizen British /Italian and had grown up in Rome. He spoke in an anecdotal fashion which was very entertaining. He told us that the cellar area in his grandmother's restaurant was 20 foot away from where Julius Caesar was assassinated. Due to Rome's birthday celebrations tomorrow he was giving a one off night tour that night which was going to end up in his grandmother's cellar with the option to stay on and dine. Unfortunately we already had plans for that night and couldn't join in.
When the tour was over we went back to The Roman Forum. It became clear that Eric and I have very different ideas for how you sightsee, I am so used to getting educational value out of every experience and he lets life wash over him. He was getting frustrated with my style, I had a book about Rome with a photographic map so I wanted to take a similar photo in order to orientate myself and tick off having spotted all those ruins. Eric was content power walking past soaking up the atmosphere. We noticed we were actually so close to Victor Emmanuelle Monument -11 which was called the Wedding Cake by the Americans in the war, that was added to tomorrow's plans!
I shooed him off on his way and continued on my quest, when I finally get my photo I have the same sense of achievement as when I open up a new cooking magazine and already have every exotic ingredient and can make a pictorial replica. I'm going to get Anthony Grace to take Eric orienteering before our next holiday so that he can enjoy map reading with me!
After two hours we were exhausted and couldn't manage Palentine Hill. We also had our dinner date at 8pm to locate. Since we're both creatures of habit we went back to trustworthy Termini Station and made a beeline for our fav café , I raced in and ordered two aperol spritzs' . It was happy hour so just like in Florence there was an amazing nibblies buffett. We hadn't eaten for 5 hours so were ravenous. However I controlled myself to only consuming a few dainty morsels as we were going to dinner.
Eric's mother has a dear friend whose daugter Mel has lived in Rome for 18 years. Although we'd never met Nina catches up with her each year when she comes to Australia so I asked her mum for her details because it's good to have a connection with someone in a new city and I really wanted to meet this adventurous spirit who'd abandoned her normal Aussie life to live her dream!
I wanted to catch the H bus right through to Trastavere where we had our dinner date, Eric however was fixated on catching the B tram. I'm such an agreeable person so instructions from Melissa in hand re metro, street tram and bus off we went. This ended up being a total shemozzle and we ended up in Piramide wasting more than an hour trying to locate which bus or tram to get on. She hadn't given us the end destinations so we were fighting a losing battle. It was now 8.30 so we bit the bullet and €7 later we were ringing her buzzer. Eric had thought about piking out,thank God that I'd insisted as Mel, her boyfriend Alessandro and her housemate Paula had prepared a sumptuous meal for us and it would have been so rude towards them.
There was an array of cheeses accompanied by a lovely conserve made by Paula's mother paired with wine, olives, pizzette and pita. After that we had Bruschetta redolent with plump tomatoes. By now I was at bursting point and Alessandro cooked tuna to perfection it was our best meal in Rome and was made even more memorable because it was cooked by friends. Ale and Mel are coming to Australia in September and we hope we can repeat the experience for them.
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