The Eternal City....Rome!.(day 1, part 2)

We walked out of the subway station to find the ruins of the famous Colosseum looming directly in front of us. Even having seen it before doesn't take away from the awe that this immense structure evokes. It is simply HUGE (50 meters high and 527 meters all around) and it boggles the mind imagining the ancient Romans constructing this place without the cranes and other modern machines and tools we would use today to build something similar.




Bill and I have both toured the inside of it before so were content to get photos of the outside and move towards the Roman Forum. The forum was the heart of ancient Rome and contains the all sorts of ruins from various buildings, monuments and walls that made up the political, religious and commercial center of the city beginning as early as 5C BC! Of course between then and now were many fires, wars, new religions, new rulers and other things that helped the forum evolve into its present state. It is hard to imagine how it must have been in its heyday.




It was VERY VERY hot all day and we were quite thirsty and tired by the time we walked across the forum. It was so dry that every little breeze created dust devils all over the place. Everyone was clustered in little pockets of shade. When we climbed the stairs that lead up to the Capital Square and the Piazza del Campidoglio we were almost at the end of our endurance. Bill said he was alarmed at how red my face was. There was a little spigot coming out of the wall with water coming out of it, we didn't know if it was safe to drink or not, but saw no signs saying that it wasn't (being used to seeing "Kein Trinkwasser" signs in Germany) and people drinking from it and filling their waterbottles. We were so thirsty we decided to take the risk. I heard someone say "We will find out in about 20 minutes if it is OK or not!" The lady who ran our Bed and Breakfast told us that these are called "nose fountains" or "il nasone" and the water that flows from them comes through aquaducts and channels out of the mountain springs outside the city. Thank you ancient Romans!!