If you don't Instagram, Facebook, or are my mail penpal (hi Rachel!) then you probably didn't know that I just went on a Mediterranean cruise. Welp, it happened. I went with 3 of my friends from DC and we met up with one of their sisters and her friend who are now new friends to me! Hooray for new friends! (and hooray for gelato because.......hooray, just a big, huge hooray, alright?)
We flew into Rome at 11pm so we just went to bed after eating some amazing pizza. The next morning we only had a half day before we had to board the cruise ship so we all agreed on the Colosseum and Forum. Rome is a very walking friendly city and I was so down with that because you miss so much when you can only take public transportation (and I fully expected to gain about 27 lbs so walking was highly advisable).
I love, love, love good graffiti. Some people might say that no graffiti is good but I like what I like.
He was standing in the middle of the street bouncing a ball on his head because why not? I didn't see him ask for money, he just seemed to enjoy it.
Melissa! You will get to know her on these posts
And that is some good graffiti
Jeff at the Colosseum
Scott, me, Melissa. He's doing amazingly well at containing his excitement.
You'll see a theme emerging soon enough.
This was our tour guide. His name sounded like Tiberius and he knew everything about ancient Rome. I wish I had been taking notes because I don't remember even 12% of what he told us.
The inside. We wanted to explore a lot more than they allowed.
We noticed two things about Europe - everyone smokes and there are A LOT of American flags. Most of the flags were on shirts or backpacks and not being worn as capes but yeah, most definitely a shocking amount of the American icon. And smoking.
In front of Constantine's Arch, it's just to the side of the Colosseum. There used to be a huge complex onsite that included the Colossus (read up on it here), the palace and the Forum.
Not sure if Scotty meant to be photo bombing but I do NOT appreciate it!
Eh, why not?
The Colosseum has been damaged in two earthquakes that give it a lopsided appearance today. The side you see is where some reconstruction and facade work has been done. The rest of it has been retrofitted to *hopefully* withstand any future earthquakes. Fun fact - it looks like it has been shot up quite heavily, no? Well those holes are actually where metal was dug out by scavengers to be sold off. Tragic but it also gives it a pretty cool aesthetic.
To the Forum!
One view from the former palace
Arch of Titus
On to the cruise! We bought train tickets and ended up sitting on our luggage on the floor. It was like riding Splash Mountain for about an hour.
We embarked and the safety procedures for the ship were bring shown in the cabin. Check out the interpreter!!! Talk about a day full of complete nerding out. The Colosseum, ancient Roman history, plus an international interpreter was almost too much for this geek.
Most posts coming soon!
2 comments:
i'm such a dummy and didn't even realize you were on a cruise. your trip looks like so so so much fun! i'm excited to read all about it.
Oh man this looks like the most fun ever! Can't wait to hear more :) xxx
Post a Comment