Roma- Day 2!

The inside of the Colosseum was amazing. It is incredibly huge. I bought a guide book for 5 Euro and it show pictures of the Colosseum before it began crumbling. It was beautiful back in the old Roman Gladiator days.
It was a beautiful day to visit the Colosseum. The sun was shining on the architecture and really brought out every detail of the structure. I wandered around and around and around, stopping to read about certain parts of the Colosseum. For me, a lover of history, being inside the Roman Colosseum was seriously exciting!
Instead of following the crowds along the main tourist route, I decided to take the long walk along the back side the Colosseum and Palatino. This turned out to be a bit longer than I expected, BUT totally worth it because I ended up at the top end of the Roman Forum. I was standing above looking toward the Colosseum and down on the entire Forum arena...
If you have never seen pictures of the Forum in history books, it would be hard to imagine what it looked like when it was a true Roman "shopping mall". But I am sure it was bustling with people just as it was today.
After the Colosseum and Forum, I just wandered around Rome for hours! I walked to the National Museum (which I might go to tomorrow), down to the Piazza Venezia where I stopped on the street just in time to see the Police Brigade on horses salute, surround and guide the prime minister to some important date I am sure. It was totally cool to run into this... very Italian patriotic. After that I wandered over to the Trevi Fountain. It was the most crowded I have ever seen a place.. much like the Charles Bridge in Prague. I could only handle the crowd for about 10 minutes then had to head to San Crispino, a gelatto place near the fountain that a friend from Portland told me to try. She was right, the gelatto was incredibly creamy and rich. I tried the Caramel and the Honey flavors- good combo! After about 6 hours walking around the city, I came back to my hotel to rest my legs, feet and take a short rest before heading out to eat an Italian dinner. I will turn in early tonight. Tomorrow I am planning to take in another Museum or two, visit the Spanish Steps and Piazza Spagna for some designer store looking (even my Euro wont go far there...), then on to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona for some real Italian shopping. Thursday I will spend the day in Vatican City where I plan to pay the extra 5 euro to walk to the top of the Sistine Chapel... that too will be an exciting history nerd thing to do! and who knows, maybe i will run into the Pope... ha ha ha
Love you all. Ciao-- Nikki