Day 2 or Rome + Awake Tom

Day 2 got off to a pretty interesting start. My body hasn't been overly kind about switching time zones, so I laid in bed from 2am to around 5am before falling asleep. Sleep was a little rough since our place is pretty hot and the environment is very loud (open windows for an attempt at air). This all led to me sleeping till noon. Luckily, I don't think I missed too much. I will say, not being sleep deprived, the city is even cooler. This might be because I don't have the desire to curl up into a little ball and sleep on every bench. (I am unemployed, why not homeless too, right?)

After getting up I took my first stab at the Metro system (easy enough). Stopped at the Termini (train station), got tickets to Florence for Thursday and then walked to the Colosseum getting lunch on the way.

So here is my first thing about being in a non-english speaking country. I have no clue what I am ordering until it gets in front of me. Luckily, this is kind of fun. About every time I order I end up confused and with something that is not what I am thinking. Being the cautious, picky, same-fooding eating person that I am, I think this is good for me as it forces me (intentionally or not) out of my comfort zone and gets me to try new things.

Back to the day. After getting a quick lunch, we head to the Colosseum, decide to do a tour (entrance only 12.5 Euroes, w/tour is 25). The first part of the tour is a waste. Our guide gives some basic info about the place, a few random facts and then says some historically incorrect information in general (not Colosseum specific)* and then goes onto glorify what great lives gladiators had and how the movies misportray them. Sure, we make them seem like every fight is to the death and it sucks, but he says they live a life a luxury, filled with good eats, plenty of sex and good ol' fightin. But he leaves out that they are slaves forced to fight, live in cages and the sex is when they are bought and traded by their owners (usually to older, wealthier widows).

Then he cuts us loose to walk around. Now the place is awesome. It really is amazing to walk around inside and if you ever go to the Colosseum it is worth paying to go in. We decide to go to the second part of the tour (new guide) that will show us the rubble of the Emperor's Palace. This made the tour fee worth it. Our guide Alex was great. Very funny, highly educating and gave some great info about how a lot of our modern customs come from Roman times (hand in marriage, short end of the stick, trick up your sleeve, etc). Sadly, there is only 30% of the original Colosseum left, 6% of the palace and 2% of the Roman Forum in front of it. St. Peter's Basilica was built out of the forum and palace ruins though.

After a brief ride on the Metro again we visited the Trevi fountain. I always wondered why this was just a big attraction and now I can see. It is awesome. Huge with beautiful sculptures and rock with crystal clear water flowing over it. Side note - all water in Roman fountains is drinkable and supplied by ONE aquaduct that was built 1900+ years ago and still works perfectly. It is 23 kilometers long, running under the city and was originally used to transport olive oil directly to the city. That is right, it is really an oilduct.

I have tried to learn some basic Italian while walking around. Now, I can't understand a word, but at least I can get some points across. Like asking if they speak English, saying thank you and ordering food (this will help). I can already see that learning a language in the country is about 100x easier than in a classroom.

After a quick pizza and gelato, we headed back to our hostel to relax before going out. Now onto Trastevere, the heavy student area where there is supposed to be plenty of pubs and a great night life. Lets see how that goes. Ciao!

*He said in Rome the average life was about 35 years and went onto to say most people died at age 35. This is incorrect. So average life expectancy was 35, this means the average of all lives put together. So every baby that dies counts as a zero, every solider who is 20, a 20 and every old person of 80, 80. The reason the number was so low was infant mortality. The greater the chance babies don't survive, the lower the life expediency (more zeros). If you lived past 30 or so, you probably would live to 80+. Elderly were much healthier and if you survived birth, sicknesses gotten in youth and war, you were expected to live a long time. Too many babies died, followed by youth dying at war or of sickness. Look any any modern country and compares its life expectancy and infant mortality rate. The same is still truth. Direct correlation.