Honeymoon: Day 6

Day six we slept past breakfast.  I was beginning to feel a bit congested due to allergies.......and perhaps due to walking around in the rain our first day in Rome.  That said, we got ready and headed to the train stop first thing.

We stopped for lunch at Ristoro della Salute dal 1920 before heading to the Colosseum.  We must have been well ahead of schedule for lunch as we were their only table.  We each ordered water and a pizza.  This pizza was on cracker thin crust.  We had one mushroom pizza and one prosciutto.  They were tasty.

After lunch, we crossed the street and got in line to tour the Colosseum.  Tour guides approached us to tell us that we could skip the two hour wait in line by hiring them, but we decided to risk it and skip the guide.  The wait to enter was only about 1/2 an hour max, and it saved us about 20 Euros by not hiring the guide.

The Colosseum was full of tourists, and it was difficult to get around without bumping into someone.  We were able to pick up bits of information from tour guides that had groups near where we were and read everything posted that we could.  It was amazing.  I had always heard stories of the gladiators fighting there, but reading about the other stuff that went on was pretty amazing.  I had no idea that wild animals were brought in and "hunted" by men that had to fight to make it out alive while people sat and watched.  I'm certainly glad that we have other forms of entertainment today.  ha!

After we left the Colosseum, we walked across the street and wandered through the Palatine Hill area.  Excavations have shown people to have lived here since 1000BC.  This hill is directly between the Colosseum and Circus Maximus (which we did not get to see).  It also overlooks the ruins of the Roman Forum.

Wish our pines grew like these do

Stadium of Domitian

While I'm snapping shots, Jtl is texting 

Ruins at the Roman Forum

Next we took the train to the Barberinni stop.  We were on a mission to find the Hard Rock Cafe...... believe it or not, after getting a tshirt from the New Orleans Hard Rock my 12 year old is a fan of their shirts.  This area of Rome was quite nice.  We saw more restaurants with outdoor dining, and even spotted LaScala Restaurant.

That evening we had dinner at Red by il Padellaccio.  There were several men working in this restaurant, but no women.  They had the neatest wine racks in this restaurant, but most people were focused on the soccer game that was being shown.  While looking at the menu, I noticed "rocket" listed again on several items.  I decided to get something with this ingredient since it was our last night.  I went with the appetizer described as  prosciutto, mozzarella, olives and rocket.  As it turns out, rocket is simply a form of lettuce.......and quite tasty.  For our entrees, I ordered ravioli with pink sauce and Jtl had rigatoni with tomato, bacon and hot peppers.  Both were quite tasty.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped into a grocery store looking for hand sanitizer.  Instead, I found Santa Margherita Pinot Grigot for 7.89 Euros.  For real?  Why did I not load up my suitcase with this for our return home?  Why are we paying nearly $30 a bottle here?  That's crazy!

Next stop was at Palazzo del Freddo for gelato.  This is the oldest gelato factory in Italy.  It was amazing.  Jtl had chocolate and tiramisu.  I went with plain chocolate.  We both opted for the fresh whipped cream on top.  As a tourist, I took pictures and didn't worry about the kid that found this to be amusing.