Arena, Ruins, and Bones, oh my!

Today was probably the most hiking we've done on the least amount of food. We did the Collusseum tour today with a wonderful tour guide through Viatour. I recommend this company as they give you a headset so you can hear your guide explaining the sights. There's nothing more frustrating on a tour than when you can't hear what is being said or you get lost. But no worries...

The Colusseum is MASSIVE! We got to go inside and walk up the stairs to the actual spots where the Vestal Virgins and the Emporer would have sat, the Galdiators' entrance, and we could also peer down into the ground area where the animals were kept. Our tour guide was very descriptive about ancient Rome, even telling us how they went to the bathroom, what they ate, and about the hand signals that the Emporer did and didn't do. There are some marble benches there that have the names of old Senators on them that also have named scratched out for when a Senator died and was replaced by another....kind of funny as they don't have marble eraser.

The forum was so ancient. Some of the things we were looking at her from BC. My favorite was the House of the Vestal Virgins, probably just because they were women. Our guide said that if a virgin was found to have slept with someone, she was buried alive, but not the way we think. They would put the girl in a room with a cup of water and a loaf of bread, THEN bury the room. This way, they couldn't be accused of killing a priestess. Seems like a loophole to me. Aaron really liked the gigantic bassilica.

After the Forum, we hit up the Capital museum. There were MANY famous busts and sculptures, including the Shewolf with Romulus and Remus. The courtyard to the museum was designed by Michelangelo. Man, he got around.

We then went cross town to the Cappuchin Crypt, the catacombs. They're actually only 2 blocks from our hotel. Yeah for convenience! This place was super eerie. Way more so than the Catacombs in Paris. It was filled with the bones of over 4000 friars. The creepiest part was that these bodies had been taken apart and made into shapes such as hourglasses, flowers, ovals, etc. There were even chandeliers made entirely of bones. They were hung by rope, but the rope was covered by femur to give the allusion of being made entirely of bone.

Aaron looked up "best gelateria in Rome" and 3 different websites claimed that 'San Crispino' was the best. So good, that they wouldn't even serve it in a cone because the cone would only distract you from the excellent flavors of their creations....I'm game. We got there and immediately asked if they had panna. They do. Ok, good start. (I also had an afternoon cone at some other place that was NOT good.)

Flavors

Stina- "San Crispino" honey and strawberry. Strawberry was amazing and the honey was refreshing but the panna was awful. It tasted like my parents' diet whipped cream that they made without sugar. Earlier in the day, I had kiwi and lemon. Meh about both. So 'meh' that I wasn't sad when my gelato fell out of my cone onto the street.

Aaron- He only ate gelato once today, but it was a double flavor day....honey and Chocolate merengue with panna. Chocolate merengue sounds awesome, no? Well, it was no biggie. Chocolate chips with pieces of a merengue in it. I think whoever suggests this place as the BEST gelateria in town hasn't tried Giolitti's or thinks they're 'too cool for school.'