Day 91 (Rome, Italy) – Wow!!!

Today I arrived in Rome feeling recharged and ready to go.  My hostel was right next to the train station so I dropped my bags off and headed straight out to see the sights.  I heard that you could spend an entire week in Rome and still not see everything.  I had three days so there was no time to waste.

My goal was to do a big loop through the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum to get a general overview of what Rome is.  As I was walking toward the Roman Forum area I was coming across various ruins.  There is so much history here in Rome that there are ruins pretty much everywhere.  Some of the buildings even incorporate them into their structure.

I was finally getting close according to my map, but was having a hard time finding the street I needed.  I notice some stairs further on that looked like they lead down to a plaza and in the direction that I wanted to go.  I couldn’t quite see what was at the bottom.  As I walked down I could see an open area with what looked like a few ruins of roman columns.  Then all of a sudden it opened up to a massive site filled with ruins.  It was all dwarfed by the Palazzo Nuovo in the background. 

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  All of the sights that I have seen throughout my trip don’t even compare to what is in Rome.  They aren’t even in the same league.  It’s simply incredible.  I was really starting to get excited because I knew that this was definitely going to be a highlight of my trip if not the top destination.

I wandered around the ruins a little and climbed to the top of the Palazzo Nuovo which was well worth it.  This structure towers over everything in Rome and there is a wonderful panoramic view at the top of the entire city.  There is a maritime museum inside which I took a quick glance at before continuing my tour. 

The next sight I came across was Cirus Maximus which basically looked like a narrow running track but on a much larger scale.  It would be quite an impressive sight if it wasn’t so arid.  But now it’s just a large dust field instead.

To the side of Circus Maximus is Palatine Hill which looks quite impressive.  I only could see the outside of it right now, but planned to take a tour tomorrow when I go to see the inside of the Colosseum.

Around the corner and down the road a little bit I could see the Arch of Constantine which leads the way to the Coloseum.  Seeing these two structures was unbelievable.  I had seen a coliseum in Pula, Croatia but this blows that away.  I can’t wait until tomorrow when I get to go inside. 

But this was enough for me today.  It was quite hot outside and I was getting hungry and tired.  I made it back to my hostel for some dinner then just hung around talking to some of the folks in my room.  I have a bunch of interesting people staying with me and it should be a fun time hanging out with them while I’m here in Rome.