Thursday, June 30. Our second day in Rome.
We got on the hop on city sightseing tour bus and headed over to the Colosseum first thing.
We signed up for a guided skip-the-line tour with the bus company.
Our tour guide was a young man named John. He is from Serbia and studies archaeology at the university in Rome. He was an excellent guide, very knowledgable, and spoke very good english.
He started the tour by explaining the history of Rome, both factual events and the Roman myths and legends. He explained the myth of Romulus and Remus, and mentioned the statues which we had noticed all over the city that show a she-wolf nursing two babies. Then he told us the factual theory that historians have about Romulus and Remus. The tour was so much more interesting because our guide brought his wealth of scholarly information.
The first sight he showed us was fairly recently unearthed. It is the ruins of a structure which had served as a housing and training location for gladiators. There had previously been underground tunnels which connected it to the Colosseum. We learned all about thelife and history of the gladiators of ancient Rome.
Next we walked over to the Colosseum to have a tour and learn about the plans, construction and use of this enormous arena.
After the Colosseum we walked over to Pallatine Hill where the ruins of the center of ancient roman life can be found. We saw the remains of a roman upperclass noble's home, the forum, and more.
This would have been a two story roman dwelling. Top floor for sleeping etc, and bottom floor for cooking and eating.
This is a row of dwellings, connected like ancient Roman condos. 
Accross the way from the "condo" is the forum and the center of Roman life.
Our tour complete, we hopped back on the bus and went downtown to get lunch. We were so hungry after all that walking that we made the unfortunate decision to go to the first restaurant we stumbled accross, rather than look for something that was recommended.
The food was mediocre and over-priced. Something that has been a frustration for us is the fact that you can't just drink tap water in a restaurant in Italy. We ended up spending seven euro just for water with lunch. Even if you order wine you still have to pay for water.
Back to our room for a nap for Burt and a shower for me. This time we took the metro because it is quicker and we were tired.
It has been so hot and humid that a cool shower is just the thing to make me feel refreshed in the afternoon.
We decided to go to the "Monti" neighborhood for dinner. From what I can gather it is a kind of urban hipster foodie neighborhood with an active night life where the young people like to hang out.
This is a square with a fountain in the middle of Monti. It is packed with a crowd of young people. Many are gathered on the fountain steps eating, drinking, and smoking.
We had a progressive dinner, starting with an apertivo (wine and appetizers) at a wine bar, then tacos and mojitos at an art and taco shop, and finally gelatto while we walked back over to the colosseum to see it at night.
Wine bar.......First course....
So many flavors! I got coffee & Tirimisu, and Burt got orange and strawberry. They were all good!
Colosseum at night. So pretty....
Now back to our hotel. We took the metro and it was the line that runs through the edgier part of town. Lots of grafiti. I was that glad I had Burt with me.
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