Day 3 Gladiators!

We met up with the Scotts in the morning and showed them the way to the hotel before making our way to the, dum dum dum, COLOSSEUM! My mother-in-law, Shirla, made a good point while talking to her the other day. It's right there next to a big road. I always expected it to be surrounded by lots of space, but nope. It's all in the middle of the hustle and bustle. Doesn't make it any less cool, just not where I expected it. So we waited in a relatively short line (like Space Mountain Fast Pass) and Nathan and I shared an audio guide. It was like meeting a celebrity. It's probably better than meeting a celebrity, since I'm pretty sure more people in the world know what the colosseum is than care about Justin Beiber. (Why is he the first celebrity that came to mind?...) It was cool to imagine the extravagant events went on there, beyond just grizzly fights of death. There was a cool story about like 50 bears coming out of a whale's mouth... I'm telling it wrong, but something cool like that happened there (I don't pretend to be an expert after a day haha). Oh and the people important enough to have their own seat (senators, etc) hadd their names carved into their spots. I could just imagine:

"Excuse me sir, but you're in my seat"

"Does it have your NAME on it?"

"Why yes. Yes it does."

"Oh... So sorry."

So after the colosseum we were hungry, so we ventured off to find food. We found a cute little place with Mel Gibson's picture on the outside. I mean, if Mel likes it, it MUST be good, right? But seriously, it was really good! I had spaghetti bolognese and Nathan had Ravioli. There's a distinct difference between what I'm used to and what Italian food is SUPPOSED to taste like. This is what it's SUPPOSED to taste like. Hand-made pasta, fresh cheese (in the ravioli), sauce that' not from a can, molto buono. I wish I knew how to make my spaghetti that good.

After the meal we decided to hunt down the Trevi Fountain again (The Scotts hadn't been yet). We stumbled upon teh Spanish steps on accident! It was a beautiful view of the city from the top (we found the steps from the top, so we didn't have to climb the stairs, luckily) and around the obelisk there were artists selling their wares. It seemed very French. In Italy, the Spanish steps looked French. Anyway, we popped into the church and it was another wonder. You can just walk by all these churches in Rome and never know the beauty in the inside. There are so many, you stop noticing them, but once you go inside, you think... why is this not being advertised?? No one told me this was here!! So yeah, another gorgeous church, no big deal :)

So we walked down the steps and tried to orient ourselves to try to find the Fontana di Trevi from there. Be careful standing still for too long on the streets of Rome. People start trying to sell you stuff. They're like flies. You shoo them away, but stop for a second and they land on your food again. So this guy comes up to Yuki and I and physically PUTS roses in mine and Yuki's hands. He then proceeded to tell us how they're good luck blah blah blah. Now, normally, one would see this as a kind gesture. A GIFT, if you will. One shouldn't be so naiive. He just stood there until we coughed up some dough. Oy. I wasn't that upset because what girl doesn't want a purty flower.

So we finally found the Trevi Fountain, and it was just as magical as the first time. This time Nathan and I did the actual "toss the coin over your shoulder" thing.
I actually forgot to make a wish. I was too caught up in the moment. It's probably a good thing I didn't make a wish, because it could have been stolen and I would wake up one day void of hope and dreams. Let me 'splain. As we were marvelling at the fountain's beauty, we noticed a less than inconspicuous shady guy looming over the water. Mr. Shifty Eyes then proceeded to extract a long metal magnet grabby thing and go for the coins in the fountain. Not cool. So Chris casually goes up next to our friend and joins him in peering into the water. Yuki and I just watch and laugh while Chris talks to him. Chris, in Italian, had just asked him what was in the water and he had replied, "Little things. Coins. Wishes." And thus the Wish Theif was born. This character gave us many a laugh for the rest of the trip.

So we then got gelato (finally!) at a place right next to the fountain. Nathan got limone and I got straciatella (vanilla with little bitsies of chocolate). Mmmmmm. We strolled back to the closest metro and made our way back to the hotel. No real dinner again, but we were pretty stuffed from lunch still.