Monday 5-17-04 Coliseum & Forum

Another trip to the bancomat this morning. And I’m tired of never having small bills or monete. So I memorize and practice this line from the Rick Steves' phrasebook - "Me puo cambriare questo, per farvore?" And take a 50 to the bank. And he understands and kindly hands over some 10s and fives and coins. Okay, now I’m ready to go.

While I’m at the bank, Isaac has discovered a Balinese store and finds a 3 foot painted wooden cat for 18 E he wants. How are we going to travel with this thing? His heart is set on it so I told him he has to carry it on all the trains and planes we have yet to take. No problem, he promises. We stop at the corner bar to pick up so pasties to take to the apartment. I make coffee to go with my chocolate filled pasty. What a life.

We take off at about 10. We take the metro, change at termini to get Line B to the Colosseo stop. While getting on the train at termini I feel someone grabbing my purse and turn around to see the girl behind me turn around and get off the train. Isaac says he saw her fingering the zipper on my purse and then leaves when I grabbed my purse. She would have been rewarded with a tour book had her efforts been successful.

There it is- the Coliseum. We are immediately approached and asked if we would like a tour in English. I initially agree despite the kids' protest. We’ve been running into tour groups all over Italy and they want no part of one. When she takes us over to the group we discover it’s a very large group; the guide has a very thick accent and is reading out of a book. I back out before handing over the money. Then we see the long line to the entrance and suddenly a tour seems like a good idea to the kids. No problem. We are approached by someone else. This is a smaller group and the guide is easier to understand. Cost is 15 E per person, including entrance fee. As we pass by the line of weary tourists and go right in, Isaac says "I take back every bad thing I’ve said about tour groups" Supposedly we bought a combo ticket including Palatine hill but that’s kind of a con because when you ask for the ticket for Palatine he says he only has 1 ticket for 16 people. But for 5 Euro more, you can take another guided tour of the Palatine.

The tour of the coliseum was only 45 min and was very interesting and informative. After the tour we were left to spend as much time as we wanted to there.
As we came out of the coliseum, I said wanted a photo with a gladiator. Isaac groaned "Mom I was just watching all the stupid tourists pay for a picture with these clowns and now you want to do it! Don't ask me to take it!"

Well we run into 3 of these guys and before any of the kids could protest, one has my camera and two are posing with all three of us. They tried to give Isaac the sword and get him to point it at his sister, but he wouldn’t cooperate. "You a good brother--you no kill your sister!" I got out a 5 Euro and the guy wants 5 E a piece. "No, I think you’ll just have to share? and walked away. "Mom you’re mean!"the kids told me.


Anyway it turns out this is the only picture from the whole trip I have of the 3 of us in one photo.

Since the coliseum was a decent tour I decided to pay the extra 5 E and do the other tour as well. That was a mistake. I thought it would be of the forum but it was only the Palatine hill, which didn’t interest any of us as much as the forum. This tour was an hour and a half, it was hot and the kids were bored, though they were very polite and did not complain.

By 2:15 the tour was over and we hadn’t really seen much of the forum. How about lunch. I’ve learned my lesson the further away from the main tourist area, the better and cheaper the food gets. We went back to the metro station to go up and walk away from the Coliseum.

In a cool shady green spot we found a sidewalk café Café Della Studenta. We are close to a University. It’s very busy and we are ignored at first. But I see empty tables and I’m too tired and thirsty to walk away so I get aggressive and stop the waitress "Un tavola per tre, per favore?" Ci, but we have to wait. She hands us some menus. I don’t care; we will have lunch at this cool and pretty café! Finally she beckons to us. There is a table for us. We all just sink into our chairs. Suddenly a waiter appears with the 3 glasses of juice for us-- mine is a different color --I assume mine is a cocktail of some sort. "For you--is free" I don’t know if they do this for everyone or we just looked so tired and pathetic. The drinks were very good. The kids want another one.

I order a pepperoni pizza "In Italia pepperoni is vegetable, “she warns me. Yes, I know, I like it. Sarah has spaghetti and Isaac decides to try a cheeseburger. Oh this ought to be interesting. I ask for more juice for the kids. "For you too?" Oh why not? "It’s free" she says. I expected to pay for the second one. "Che cozy questa?" (Whats in it?) "Professional secret," she jokes.

The food was wonderful. The pizza had grilled peppers of all colors. Sarah had some and declared it the best in Italy so far. Isaac’s cheeseburger was made with mozzarella cheese and the bun was grilled. It was different but he liked it.

We sat there and enjoyed the cool breeze for a long while. The frustrating part of the trip has been that in planning you think you can see all there is to see while you are in a particular area. But you just cannot predict how tired and sore you get. I haven’t seen much of the forum; I’d like to see the Mamertine prison where Peter and Paul were supposed to have been imprisoned together. I know its close, but sometimes I have trouble finding even things that are close. And I can see a sign with an arrow pointing to S. Pietro en Vincello St Peter in Chains church.

Finally we are ready to keep going. Bill for this wonderful lunch was only 25 E.

We easily find the St Peter in Chains church, which hold the chains that supposedly held Peter.

I’m not Roman Catholic, I don’t get excited by relics and I don’t care if these are the actual chains that held Peter. Whether or not *these* are the chains, Peter was held in chains, as many other faithful were. They are a symbol of the story of the beginnings o the church and the courage of those early followers who risked their lives for their faith.

Michelangelo’s statue of Moses is also here. Isaac is fascinated by a relief with skeletons in a side chapel. I think it looks like something out of pirates of the Caribbean.

We walk down Cavour Street back to the forum and I think I know where the prison is. I see it --there it is over on the other side of the ruins. So we walk down to the end and around and visit the prison.
Then I’m able to convince the kids that since we have to walk back to the metro by the Coliseum we might as well walk through the forum rather than on the sidewalk above. They spend the entire walk arguing about something incredibly trivial, totally oblivious to the historic treasure that surrounds them. Oh well. At least I got to see it.

The metro is very crowded and we stand packed together. Poor Isaac is so hot I’m afraid he’s going to pass out on the train from heat exhaustion. I’ve forgotten the sunblock AGAIN and Sarah looks like a beet. What a bad mother I am.

Home at last. I’m so grateful for the cold red orange juice in the refrigerator. We rest awhile in the apartment but it’s not long before the kids are asking to eat. I don’t feel like cooking. Around the corner is a pizzeria L'Isola Della Pizzeria that is always so busy. We think it must be good. They have outside tables, but its cool and our sunburn makes us even colder so we take a table inside.

The waiter tells us they have a special. Okay let’s try it. Special Antipasti. Okay but here’s the fun part. The first dish is calamari and the kids begin to squeal --"Eww gross" when they see a baby octopus. I like calamari but I don’t really want to eat octopus. But I feel I must set an example so I plop it in my mouth "Ew!"They squeal again. Its not bad, kind of like salty rubber. I prefer not to have another one.
Then come marinated tomatoes and cold pasta with oil, prosciutto and mozzarella cheese, and these deep fried rice balls that were wonderful. Mixed greens. I haven’t really liked the salads in Italy; they all have some greens that seem to have a bitter taste to me. We also get a lentil paste, more mozzarella but it’s not as good as the other place. All served with bread like a crisp pizza crust. The kids are still hungry so Isaac got his usual prosciutto pizza and Sarah had spaghetti. Since I’d eaten most of the antipasti, it was enough for me. Isaac had to cans of sprite. I had a half a bottle of vino rosso. 66 E all together.

Then a gelato stop of course, Sarah had the tiramisu I had the night before. Isaac has something we think was chocolate chip and I had something white and boring.