the C O L O S S E U M

The highlight of our trip.

We got up early for our second day of Rome. It was our only full day to see the city. We intended to make the most of it.

Our hotel had a nice buffet breakfast on the roof with a beautiful view of St. Peter's Basilica.

Lemon and orange trees lined the roof-top terrace. Anywhere the lemons and oranges can grow outdoors in January makes me happy. I wanted to sneak outside and pick one, but resisted the urge.

Having booked a Colosseum and Ancient Rome tour, we had studied the Metro system and how to get from our hotel {next to the Vatican} down to the Colosseum.

Looks easy enough, right?

As we were walking out of our hotel, I asked the man at the front desk to point us in the way of the Metro was just to make sure we did not get turned around. He strongly suggested taking the bus instead of the underground subway.

Rather than being in the dark, we could drive above ground and see all that there was along the way. The crazy driving down narrow streets was an added bonus.

It was great advice and we took it.

sights we took in along the bus route

The bus station was around the corner. It was around 8:00am- early for Rome. The big city was still sleepy and peaceful. When restaurants do not open until 7:30pm for dinner, you know they stay up late and sleep in.

We jumped on bus 81 which took us straight to where we needed to go. No transfers, no craziness, no crowds. Rome has a very efficient and user-friendly local transportation system- we were quite impressed and especially happy to not get lost.

Again, we had no idea what we were seeing. There were fountains and monuments and enormous buildings out both sides of the bus. A very kind non-English-speaking priest helped us by pointing out where we would get off for the Colosseum.

It was not hard to spot- the structure is incredible. You can't miss it.

Early for our tour, we stopped in a little Café for a sweet treat and a little bonus Lionel Richie on the local radio.

Our tour was small {eight others} and the best decision we made to get the most out of our short time in the city. With kids, guided tours can be long and frustrating as our boys are not always patient.

They get bored, we have to shush them {something Caden can't stand} and end up missing all the history.

We can't blame them, so we avoid the frustration all together and rarely spend the money or time on tours.

Today, we were ready for our history lesson. We hung on every word and detail our truly Roman guide Damien offered for the entire three-hour walk through the Colosseum and Ancient Rome.

This fine man of mine even took pictures- something that never happens. I knew we were somewhere grand for him to take charge of a camera.