Unfortunately, we were somewhat dissapointed with Rome. It is a huge city and it is very dirty. The place is extremely crowded and there are a lot of homeless. We quickly got tired of so many people approaching us with their hands out. Also, almost every vendor tried to over charge or short change us. At the train station a guy approached us as we were using the ticket machine. All of a sudden he was right beside me and trying to operate the machine for me. We thought he was an impatient customer that wanted to use the machine and I yelled at him a couple of times to go away. Then, when I was done he stuck his hand out and wanted me to give him money! I had had it at this point and I screamed in his face to get the (expletive) away from us and he walked off. When we left the next day we saw this scam going on all over the place. When a tourist is using the machine, they walk up and try to "help" them and then demand money. They are really pushy about it and we saw a number of people give in. We also watched as police officers chased them away and seconds later they came right back. It was obvious that the cops know who they are and they chase them away all day long.
During a ride on the subway, a young kid was walking through the train playing an accordion. At first it seemed cute, but then we watched as he stood in front of each passenger and obnoxiously demanded money. He would stand two inches in front of each person and hold a little cup and would not go away. This was not a poor kid either, he was wearing new clothes and Nike sneakers and was actually a chubby little bastard. He just had his scam and knew that if he stood in front of tourists long enough they would usually give in and give him money.
The final straw was on our last night when we bought some pizza. They handed them to me and I honestly thought the boxes were empty. I had to open them to see if there was anything inside and I saw the thinnest most miserable excuse for a pizza I have ever seen, with the smallest amount of toppings all in one spot. Then the guy tried to overcharge me and after we settled that, he was 10 euro's short on my change! We saw it coming though and we got our 10 euro's (that's 14 bucks)!
So, with all that said, the Coliseum was amazing. We toured on our own for almost three hours. Then we headed for the Vatican, but we got there 20 minutes after it closed. Too bad, the Pope closes at 4! We weren't too dissapointed though. Especially after we found out that it would cost almost 50 dollars for us to go in. We walked around to the front and hung out in the area that you see on TV when thousands of people congregate and the Pope comes out on his little balcony. We were happy to see that and decided we wouldn't change our plans in order to come back tomorrow.
I hate to give Rome such a bad review. We did enjoy it overall and we were really excited to go the Coliseum. It's just a really big city and seems to have more than it's share of the typical problems that you find in such places.
We were both struck by the brutality of what occurred at the Coliseum. We learned that a day at the Coliseum consisted of Gladiator vs wild animals in the morning, then theatrical performances in the afternoon followed by Gladiator vs Gladiator in the early evening (to the death, unless the crowd thought the loser had fought hard enough and would give the thumbs up to spare his life, apparently this didn't happen very often though and they usually turned their thumbs down) and then the Grand Finale of executions of enemies of the empire. Usually be-headings or crucifixions. Good times!!
Note: The pics don't upload in the order I would like them to, but it gets messy when I try to move them around.
The catacombs that were beneath the floor of the coliseum. They had sophisticated elevator systems to raise animals into the arena "out of thin air". You may heave seen it all in the movie Gladiator. The Video Tour that we paid extra for (an Ipod) included scenes from that movie and Sparticus.
They have erected a floor over a portion of catacombs.
This was the area where the Senators sat. Seats were assigned to them for life and their names were inscribed on marble pillars. Some of the inscriptions are still visible.
I was impressed with the huge cubes of stone stacked so high on the top of the wall.
A pic from the end zone!
Close up of the cubes. Man, if one of these ever fell!!! All the little holes were caused by removal of steel braces that were melted down to use for other purposes.
Outside the coliseum. A significant place, but we never found out what it was. We'll have to Google it sometime.
More coliseum
This is another important monument outside of the coliseum that we never learned anything about!
The Vatican! This is where the crowds are when the Pope has something to say from his balcony.
Well, not here exactly, it's actually out of the frame.
More Vatican
Some of the statues around the top.
This is the Vatican post office! A stinking lousy beat up old camper!! People like to send post cards here to get the Vatican Post Office stamp on them.
Yup, we were there!! The Pope's balcony is up there someplace.
Our rail trip so far - Amsterdam to Cologne Germany to Heidelberg Germany back to Mansheim Germany, then to Zurich Switzerland to Milan Italy then to Verzzano Italy (oops, meant to go to Vernazza), then to Pisa, then back to Vernazza, and then to Rome.
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