When in Roma

Poor Owen had a pretty hard time staying asleep last night. Truth be told, we all did. This morning, though, we were all pretty sleepy, so we got a bit of a late start. We had some cappuccino and pastry downstairs from our appartment to get us going and then on to the Metro for Basillica di San Giovanni in Laterano. It was the Pope's residence until the 14th century. Everything inside was so beautiful. Even Owen was awe struck. He couldn't seem to stop from looking up. The ceiling was guilded everywhere, it seemed, with these huge statues of Christ, saints, and all sorts of other holy things. All throughout there were these little side rooms, some spectacular, some ordinary. Some were open to the public, where people prayed, others closed with signs saying "no photo". There was a pope sort of on display near the front of the basillica, but you couldn't see anything because the glass that covered it was opaque. In the back there were nuns selling various religious items. I bought my mom a rosary. Outside, in the square, we stopped to feed Owen before heading on.

We stopped for some pizza on our way back to the Metro. Kris had zucchini and ham and I had spinach. I ordered as best as I could in what broken Italian I could remember from my podcasts. It's hard to perform under pressure.

Next was the Colosseum. We got a tour by a young italian man who looked like Johnny Bravo. He spoke decent English and gave us a pretty good history of the structure. It was every bit as (actually, more) gruesome than in the movies. It was easy to imagine he crowds. One interesting thing that I didn't know was there was a retractable fabric roof on top. Aparently stadium technology really hasn't changed much.


We also took in Palatine hill and the Roman Forum. We spent so much time roaming around in the ruins that they kicked us out.




We ate dinner at a resturant about a block from the Colosseum. Once again delicious. Owen sat in one of those chairs that strap to the table. All the waiters came over to talk to him and he loved it! He also tried his first piece o bread. We gave him a crust to gnaw on and he was pretty much in heaven. By the end of the meal he was getting pretty cranky. We headed home. Whew!


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