Day Two in Roma: The Coliseum and the Spanish Steps

We had a lot planned for Rome on Tuesday, our last day there. Since the night before was our last night there, Rachelle and I got another bottle of wine to share like we did on our first night in Italy. We were up late chatting and packing, so the next morning, it was impossible for me to get up. I obviously wasn’t ready in time to go to the bakery with Rachelle and the girls, so she took off with them, and I stayed at the apartment waiting for the owner while finishing my last minute packing. Once we checked out and got our security deposit back, we headed to the Metro station to take us to the train station.

Believe it or not, we made it there without any hiccups or bumps in the road! We dropped our luggage off at the Left Luggage room and headed to the coliseum. One more train ride later we arrived along with ten thousand other people. We found a person selling last minute tour guides, which meant avoiding the ten thousand person line. We paid slightly more than a generally admission ticket, but avoiding the line was far more important to us.

The tour began at the bottom of the coliseum and standing in a couple sections while listening to her stories. Rachelle and I were still trying to get the girls situated, so it was a little difficult for us to pay attention at this time. We dropped of the stroller and walked up a billion steep stairs. Once we were at the top we walked about halfway around the coliseum where the tour guide stood and talked for about 20 minutes. As soon as we got to the top, Haylee suddenly had to potty, so Rachelle had to walk her all the way back around and down to the entrance where the restrooms were. I stayed at the top with Jaydn, distracting her enough to not realize her mom had left. By the time Rachelle returned from the potty with Haylee the tour was over and we were free to roam the coliseum on our own. It was extremely hot that day, but we managed to walk around the entire thing, well, as much as they would let us. There was a pretty big section blocked off where no one could go. It was hard to think that we were standing in a place where men killed other men for entertainment purposes. And it was even harder thinking I was standing in places where people sat cheering it on. We stayed there for a little over an hour and had planned on going to the Mamertine Prison afterward, where St. Peter was a prisoner. However, when we walked out of the coliseum, it was like the entire week hit us all smack dab in the face and we were dead tired. Unfortunately, we decided to skip the Mamertine Prison and make our way to the Spanish Steps where we would find some food for lunch. We told ourselves that us not seeing the prison this time would give us a good excuse to one day go back.

We hopped on the City Bus Tour bus and had some time to relax as we drove to the Spanish Steps. It took about 30 minutes to get there with all the stops we made, so we arrived shortly before 4PM. Our bus tickets would expire at exactly 4PM, so we wouldn’t be able to take it back to the train station where would make our way back to the airport. Instead, we decided to enjoy the steps and the billions of people on them, get some lunch and then pay for a metro ticket back to the station. Now, I can’t tell you I know any background of these steps, but everyone loves to see them, so I took my typical tourist pictures. Even though I’m not sure of their purpose, they were pretty and at least worth a drive by!

We walked down the street a bit and found a restaurant that had misters. Yes! Misters!!! It was a beautiful thing. We knew it was our last meal in Rome, so we decided not to hold back and be total pigs. I have to say, this lunch was by far the most interesting and entertaining meal I think I’ve ever had. We ordered our food and drinks, me getting both a Sprite and a Peroni beer (which I had to try per my dad). Our drinks were brought out and as Rachelle and I decided to do our “first taste” poses with this oh so fancy beer, when the next thing I realize is my glass of Sprite gracefully spilling its way off the table. Jaydn must have been thirsty because she really had to reach and pull herself out of her chair to get my glass. Now mind you, you don’t get free refills in Europe, so the sight of my cold, thirst quenching Sprite all over my legs and Jaydn’s stroller slightly depressed me. But hey, I still had half a glass… whatcha gonna do right? So then a little later, I’m districted with something, whether it’s looking at my camera or my food, I cant remember, but when I eventually come to and look up at Rachelle, she has this look of shock and anger, yet about to bust out laughing on her face. I notice water dripping from her cheeks, nose and chin. There is water all over her shirt. And then I look at Haylee, who also has a look of shock, and fear on her face. I do have to say that Rachelle did an excellent job turning her head while she cracked up laughing, but just sneaky enough that Haylee didn’t notice. I was still confused at this point and also trying not to laugh, because I knew something wrong had happened. Apparently, for no reason what-so-ever, Haylee decided to fill her cheeks up with water, and then slap them with her hands spraying spitty water all, and I mean ALL, over Rachelle. Haylee never realized how funny we thought it was, but rather knew she was in some trouble. Now that’s one impressive mother!! After all this, I ate a fantastic alfredo pasta followed by an even more fantastic ice cream fruit dessert. With our bellies stuffed, we said our final goodbyes to Roma and got on the metro that brought us to the train station.

Once we arrived at the train station we scrambled around trying to find the bus that was supposed to take us to the airport. Since we didn’t have a computer nor a printer, our tickets were on my iPhone… which they did not accept. Rachelle had to run across the street to a place that would print it, but no wait, that still wasn’t good enough. When she showed the driver THAT ticket he said she needed to go back into the station to get it validated, which the station was not all that close anymore. I stood with our luggage and Jaydn as Rachelle booked it with Haylee, with only minutes before the bus was to leave. Luckily, she made it back in time and we got on the bus and it was onward to the airport.

At the airport, we found the line we needed to get in for our visa checks and to check my bag, and realized it was about 500 people long. Waiting and waiting and waiting, we finally got to the front, had everything verified and thought we were good to go. But then the woman said that because I didn’t check my bag online the night before, I needed to go stand in ANOTHER line to pay for my bag. This line only had about 5 people in front of me. One of which was a young girl trying to consolidate her 4 bags into one. She had about 10 shirts on, all her jewelry, even used a shirt as a belt, but still had no luck fitting all her remaining junk in this one tiny bag. There was one guy working this counter. I stood in line for almost another hour before I finally was able to pay for my stupid bag. Oh yeah, but this was after the girl who couldn’t get her bags into one, ran off screaming and crying (similar to my experience in Philly a couple years ago) and then came back with a security guard or someone, who demanded something, of which I do not know because it was all in emotional Italian. But on the bright side, she paid for whatever she needed to pay for and took her bags and layers of clothing to her gate where she luckily did not miss her flight.

After that entertaining fiasco we boarded our plane and looked forward to getting home. Finally, some time to be lazy and relax.