Rome--Day 1

We got to Rome fairly early in the morning, and the first thing we did was lug our things to the hotel which was luckily just around the corner. After we dumped our stuff, the initial plan was to head to the Vatican, but we were steered away from that plan and headed to the Colosseum instead. Usually I'm not so "starstruck" by buildings, but this was a rare case where I was in awe from the time I saw it. I'm not sure what it was, but it was awesome! 

We got suckered into a tour because the line was pretty long and we really had no idea of any of the history of it. Usually I'm a DIY traveler, but my parents wanted to go on the tour and I agreed. We learned some interesting facts like that there were 80 complete arches, and the whole thing only took 8 years to build! Pretty impressive. 

Then we headed inside and toured around there. Our tour guide was awful, and actually cornered us and made us stare at a construction sign that had a picture of the colosseum, with our backs turned to the real thing! He was nuts, and his english wasn't so great, but we learned some tidbits I wouldn't have otherwise. 

After that tour, there was a continuation with a good tour guide to see Palatine Hill and the Forum. Luckily this tour guide was amazing, and I'm glad we did it. Walking around with a guide in this area was definitely worth it because if we did it alone it would just look like a big pile of ruins. 

On top of Palatine Hill overlooking the Roman Forum

When we left there we were starving, and because it was our first night in Italy we gravitated toward the millions of pizza/pasta options. Here's my choice: 4 cheese pizza with white sauce and asparagus. It was pretty good, but my mom's more traditional choice took the "best food" award that night.