I am still feeling under the weather due to my wisdom tooth act, but it seems to be getting better very slowly. Before I could barely open my mouth to talk or eat, now I can speak a little better and swallow with almost no pain. I still can’t chew anything though. I’m getting very hungry though… All I can eat is mush, it’s really starting to affect my mood and my ability to focus on simple tasks, like reading a book… I dunno how people go through crazy diets. I may have to turn my attention to baby food. Oh joy…
Setting my issues aside here’s the second day of the journey in Rome.
After being absolutely in awe looking at every angle of the Pantheon we were on our way to see the most famous of all fountains: La Fontana di Trevi.
It’s in the back of a building. That’s what they say. Yeah it might be in the back of Palazzo Poli, which is by it self as all other old buildings in Rome, enormous and beautiful, but the Trevi Fountain is just jaw-dropping amazing. It depicts a Taming of the Waters theme, where water and rocks interlace, with Tritons and they’re hippocamps guiding Oceanus, the god of all water. The different expressions all the characters have make them almost alive and you can get lost in the details, making you wonder what are those rock people thinking.
Unfortunately I didn’t take many pictures of the fountain this second day, mainly because not only I was impressed with the sculptures and the dimensions of it all, I was absolutely astonished by how many people there were surrounding the fountain. It was unbelievable. And people… do not get in the fountain. While we were admiring the piece a french teenager, encouraged by her grandparents, thought it was a good idea to go in the fountain to take a better picture. The police immediately alerted her and told her to get out and she got a ticket that she had to pay on the spot. Fun isn’t it?
After taking a look at the fountain we decided to go back to the hotel and rest — we always walk way too much the very first day and then we have to pace it the following days. But since we had to go by the colosseum and there was no queue to go in we took the wonderful opportunity and went inside the colosseum (not after we waited inside for about 15 minutes, the queue was inside, you see… but still!). It was about 4pm when that happen. I don’t think that the queue gets smaller by that time every day, for all of you who are planning to visit and want to know the best time, I do think that it was way to hot for people to just stand there in the sun for hours. The biggest lines were in the morning, around 10, 11 am, so my advice is to go either really early in the morning or at closing hour…
The colosseum sent chills down my spine. First because it was insanely huge — how the hell did those people do that with no machinery? — and second because many people had died there while many others were cheering. Once you get yourself inside and you start really looking at your surroundings you can imagine easily 50,000 people seating on their assigned places — Romans invented the tickets — while the animals walked around the labyrinthic passageways underneath the arena. It makes you feel quite insignificant. It’s definitely a sight not to be missed.
And that’s it for today, people.
Have a nice wednesday!
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