Eurotrip 2011: When in Rome...go to the Colosseum - Pt. 2

As we walked down the street toward the old Roman Forum, vendors lined the streets. Snacks, hotdogs and hamburgers were advertised, showing how big tourism is part of the economy here...Romans don't eat hamburgers. We passed by a frutteria with some of the most gorgeous fruit I've ever laid eyes on. It didn't hurt that they had native variations on fruit that I was seeing for the first time.

The majority of Rome is a historical and archaeological site, so much of it is fenced and gated off from public. Given the amount of graffiti in Rome we had already seen, I'm not surprised. From my view in the cheap seats it seemed that on the whole, the locals didn't really care about the condition of their surroundings. Spent cigarettes and trash were a common decoration as well as barely functioning public bathrooms, if you were lucky enough to find one. This was the most surprising thing I found about Rome after visiting, especially since so much timeless beauty is everywhere you look.



How things used to look



As we travelled further down Via del Fori Imperiali, the Colosseum peeked into view. We were told more interesting things as we drew closer, but at this point we had walked about 4 miles and the sun was beamin'. I brought water and Gatorade with us, but our rations had been depleted and the water I had left was tub warm. We got to the great stadium of gladiators past, and worked our way into the stands for a quite majestic view of what previously went on here. One thing I do remember in my dehydrated delirium was that the movie Gladiator wasn't a true representation of how the Colosseum operated. Who would've thought Hollywood would make something up.

We parted with our tour guide and were left to our own devices. I could've walked to the other side to get a better shot with the sun to my back, but we had to get going. A mirage appeared past the exit, no wait, it was no mirage...it was the best racket it town. $5 icy cold 20oz Gatorade bottles. We really had no choice but to rehydrate ourselves and retreat to our Via Millazzo spread. Our cab driver worked his magic and got us home in about 10 minutes for ~10 Euros. We swung by the same place I got water in the morning to restock on necessities then napped showered and came out for dinner after sunset.

Our random decisions for food so far hadn't steered us wrong, so we walked back to Via Marsala to see if we could find another place with outdoor seating so we could eat while people watching over a nice Italian meal. We stumbled into quite possibly the best pork chop and chicken breast on earth...at a ristorante that you can't even track down on google map; its name was Il Capitello. When I say this pork chop was great I mean it was cooked perfectly; large in size, but cut thin enough to cook through by searing the meat for just a little bit of crust and juicy, but done inside. The only seasonings I could make out were pepper and salt, and it was wonderful. Beth had chicken breast prepared in the same manner which was delightful as well. Our gullets satisfied, we headed back to the terrible mattress for some quick sleep before morning. We had a date with the Vatican Museum.