Colosseum, Forum and Pantheon

Today on the agenda... the Colosseum, Forum and Pantheon. First stop... The Colosseum. We were walking, and walking, and walking before I asked someone for directions. We were close to it by the time I asked. The Colosseum is amazing. The amazing part is that it is still intact. Parts have been restored, which is understandable. It is 2,000 years old after all. There were mobs of people. Underneath the floors of the Colosseum back in those days was an open cavity that would fill full of water and naval battles would occur. Eventually, they dug channels and a stage was installed and different props would come up through the floor. After we took many pictures and visited the book store, we left to go to the Forum, which was across the street. The Forum is pretty much disintegrated and was very interesting. On one side of the Forum is Palentine Hill. It used to be an area for shops where people lived. It was a nice walk. Romans must have had strong feet because they wore nothing but sandals on cobblestone, and we have support running shoes and pavement. oh, and when we got lost at the start of the day... it turns out that all we had to do was walk around the front, instead of the side of the building, and we would have been at the Colosseum in two minutes instead of 25 minutes. We made our way to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is amazing. It is the world's largest unreinforced cement dome. It is still used as a church and is completely intact. The roof of the dome is open and legend says it doesn't rain in the dome when people hold candles because the heat rises and doesn't allow rain to enter the church. After the Pantheon, we went for a walk, shopped, sat at the Spanish Steps, people watched. We were starting to get a bit hungry so went to a local restaurant for lunch. It was recommended by a local, and the funny thing is... we noticed it walking by just a few minutes before, saying "look at how crowded that place is. It must be good." It was good. Maan, it's been a long day. Let's go back to the hotel and relax for the evening.