We met up with our tour guide, Mohammed, outside the Metro stop by the Colosseum. He has a degree in archeology and made a career of it for 8 years in Rome before adding “tour guide” to his resume, so it was especially interesting listening to him as we walked through the Colosseum and adjoining Forum. At places you could see layers of four different eras of construction on top of each other, ranging from BC through the 1800s. My favorite part of the Colosseum was the elevator system that would rise up through the sand covered floor with the Gladiators or wild animals aboard. Ahh, showmanship.

Kevin’s three years of Latin were put to use as he helped translate carvings on statues and buildings.

Here’s a map of our walking tour (the blue line).

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Afterwards we walked over to the Pantheon, and FINALLY grabbed some lunch. That’s a lot of walking on a European breakfast. Kevin ordered his favorite pizza, which is just cheese and no sauce. The waitress thought that sounded boring, so she had the chef use some exotic cheese to make it more interesting – then they way undercooked it so the center of the crust was still doughy. Not exactly what Kevin had in mind. He was a great sport though.

We appeased all of us with the best gelato of the trip at a place next to the Piazza Navona. Ummm. Then the long walk back to the hotel via Fontana di Travi.
(The yellow line on the map.)

After resting our steaming feet, we grabbed a cab and went back near Piazza Navona to a recommended pizzaria name Bufalo. It paid off for Kevin, great thin crust pizza sitting outside. Then we walked back AGAIN, but this time tried to take a shorter route, which would have worked if we didn’t miss a turn and end up almost next to the Colosseum again. Ouch.