Roma Day 3~ Colosseum,Spanish Steps,Trevi Fountain&The Pantheon

On the morning of day three,Sunday, we hit the ground early had breakfast and caught the 8:00am Hotel shuttle to the city center. The first on our agenda was to hop back on our hop-on-hop-off bus(we had a 48 hour pass) and head to the Colosseum to avoid long lines! And what perfect timing we had. We got in line with no waiting and we decided at the last minute to take the 9:00am English speaking tour of the Colosseum, it was so worth it. If you ever go to Roma, I recommend the tour of the Colosseum! It is definitely worth going inside of the Colosseum and not just looking at it from the outside. This was the one thing that the Bookworm really wanted to see and go into, he loved it!

After the Colosseum we decided to walk right across from the Colosseum and see the Roman Forum. This was very interesting. This is one of the preserved archaeological sites of ancient Rome.The remains here are of 2,000 year old temples, law courts and victory monuments, they were very impressive. The above picutre is of the Forum.

After we toured the Colosseum, we jumped back on the bus and took it all the way til we got to the closest stop for the Spanish Steps. About a 7 minute walk and we were looking up at the Spanish Steps. They weren't pretty this time of the year. The time of the year to see them is March-April when all of the beautiful flowers are in bloom along the Steps, but still I wasn't complaining because I was there, looking right at them. We counted the steps as we walked up them........133 steps from the bottom to the top. And believe it or not, no grips came from anyone in my family about climbing them all the way to the top!! It's probably because they knew that a McDonalds was right around the corner and that that was going to be the next stop....lunch!

Lunch was eaten and enjoyed and then we headed on foot to the Trevi Fountain. This was the most that we had walked in the past three days. It was alittle bit of a walk from the Spanish Steps to the Trevi Fountain. But once we got there, it was amazing. The fountain was beautiful and the water was so clear and so clean. Although there were alot of people, it didn't even phase you because all that you could do was look at the beauty of the fountain. All four of us had to throw a euro into the fountain, and of course we all four had to touch the water! It is said that on every Monday, they turn off the fountain and clean it and take out all of the coins and that all of the money that is taken out of the fountain goes to the Rome Red Cross. This was the one site that the Princess really wanted to see, she says that it was definitely her favorite thing that we saw the whole weekend. Above is a picture of the Trevi Fountain and a picture of the Princess after she threw her Euro in the fountain. If you throw a euro in the fountain, it means that you hope to go back to Rome one day.Our last site to see after the Trevi Fountain was the Pantheon. This was another nice walk......10-15 minutes from the fountain, but once again, it was worth it! The Pantheon was probably one of my favorite sites the whole weekend, besides the Sistine Chapel. It dates all the way back to A.D. 118! What was amazing about the Pantheon is it's open dome inside. Yes, it's dome is open, thus when it rains, it comes into the Pantheon! They do have drains in the floor of the Pantheon, and let me just mention that the Bookworm had a fun time taking picutres of all the drain holes! Above is a picture of the Pantheon and below is a picture of the Bookworm at the Pantheon, it's self exlanatory!

We had a wonderful weekend in Rome! It's hard to believe that a week ago today we were standing in front of the Colosseum! What great memories and stories we have to share will family and friends in just a few weeks when we will be back in the states....finally!