Title translation: Not all doughnuts come out with a hole
Meaning: Things don't always turn out as planned
Meaning: Things don't always turn out as planned
We began the day with a stroll past Circus Maximus, now a public park (though one might just call it an open field), to the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. Here is housed the Bocca della Verità (the Mouth of Truth) made famous by Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday. We lined up with all the tourists (see below, it was ridiculous) and stuck our hands in the mouth. We thankfully both came away with two hands so we must not be liars.
We walked back to the metro stop only to find that it was closed. I should have asked then why the station was closed, but, sadly, I didn't think my Italian comprehension was good enough to understand the response to "why is the metro stop closed?" so we decided to walk up to the next stop at the Colosseum, which we knew wasn't terribly far. We finally get there and discover that that station is closed as well. Great. At this point we didn't know whether just this line or the entire metro was closed, but we were now about two thirds of the way to the next stop in our plan so we decided to keep walking.
After a very warm and slightly sweaty walk we made it to Saint Peter-in-Chains Church, famous for Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses housed there. There must be a campaign of restoration taking place across Rome right now because this too was undergoing restoration. Despite the scaffolding, it was still neat to see.
At this time it finally dawned on me to check the metro website, rather than checking Google for articles about the metro closure. This was much more productive and we discovered that only line B was closed. We just needed to make it up to the next station which transferred to line A. And so we decided to walk... A very hot half hour later we arrived at the metro station that would allow us to switch to line A. We had lunch plans at 1:00pm so we decided that we had to skip our next two stops and go straight to the Spanish Steps.
We arrived at the Spanish Steps and immediately remembered it was a Saturday; it was packed! We fought the crowds for a space on the steps and took the requisite tourist selfie. We wandered around the shopping triangle in this area and found a Laudree shop so of course we purchased macarons!
We then met up with Babette from our Vatican tour yesterday for lunch. She is so fun and so knowledgeable about Rome; we really enjoyed hanging out with her. Following lunch she took us to her favorite coffee shop, La Casa del Caffe Tazza d'Oro near the Pantheon, and then walked with us to Piazza Navona so that Russ could see the Bernini sculpture. We had the best time wandering the back streets of Rome without having to use a map and actually being able to look around and take everything in.
After enjoying the Piazza for awhile we headed back to our hotel to rest before our nighttime tour of the Colosseum! We found a little tea shop around the corner for dinner and I had super yummy quiche for a change of pace from pasta and pizza.
A bit before 8:40pm we picked up our tickets from the Colosseum box office and queued up for our guided tour of the underground. It was so cool to be able to go out onto the section of stage that has been rebuilt and to go underneath into underpinnings of the arena, but I think it was an even better experience to do the tour at night when all the tourist crowds are gone and the darkness gives the place an eerie feel.
Every day on the way to our hotel we have passed this ruin site, wondering what it was. Well on our tour we discovered that this was the only Gladiator training center that was connected directly to the Colosseum through an underground tunnel that now runs underneath a modern road. Neat!
Tomorrow we take off for Sorrento, but we kind of wish we could stay in Rome!
We arrived at the Spanish Steps and immediately remembered it was a Saturday; it was packed! We fought the crowds for a space on the steps and took the requisite tourist selfie. We wandered around the shopping triangle in this area and found a Laudree shop so of course we purchased macarons!
We then met up with Babette from our Vatican tour yesterday for lunch. She is so fun and so knowledgeable about Rome; we really enjoyed hanging out with her. Following lunch she took us to her favorite coffee shop, La Casa del Caffe Tazza d'Oro near the Pantheon, and then walked with us to Piazza Navona so that Russ could see the Bernini sculpture. We had the best time wandering the back streets of Rome without having to use a map and actually being able to look around and take everything in.
After enjoying the Piazza for awhile we headed back to our hotel to rest before our nighttime tour of the Colosseum! We found a little tea shop around the corner for dinner and I had super yummy quiche for a change of pace from pasta and pizza.
A bit before 8:40pm we picked up our tickets from the Colosseum box office and queued up for our guided tour of the underground. It was so cool to be able to go out onto the section of stage that has been rebuilt and to go underneath into underpinnings of the arena, but I think it was an even better experience to do the tour at night when all the tourist crowds are gone and the darkness gives the place an eerie feel.
Every day on the way to our hotel we have passed this ruin site, wondering what it was. Well on our tour we discovered that this was the only Gladiator training center that was connected directly to the Colosseum through an underground tunnel that now runs underneath a modern road. Neat!
Tomorrow we take off for Sorrento, but we kind of wish we could stay in Rome!
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