Carpe Diem!

Gladiators fighting each other and wild animals to entertain the citizens of Rome. A slaughter house for millions of innocent lives, including the animals. This was the Roman Colosseum 2,000 years ago. Now it is one of the largest tourist attractions in the country. What remains of the Colosseum is truly magnificent. This stone arena constructed in 70 AD holds as many as 80,000 people and consists of three levels. The very bottom, the dungeon as I call it. This level is where slaves, gladiators and wild animals were housed before sent to slaughter. The second level is the ground floor where the "entertainment" took place. The third level is of course the stadium seating for spectators to sit and enjoy their show. The way the Colosseum has deteriorated over the years is almost perfect. That sounds silly, but there is a perfect view of each level, in detail, when looking down upon the stadium from up high.
Oh, and there is such a thing as stone robbers. My initial thoughts were, "who'd want to steal hunks of stone." Then I remembered it was the Roman Colosseum and that wouldn't be a bad souvenir. No worries, I refrained. 

Levels.

There is just something about black and whites when shooting history.

My favorite shot.

After the Colosseum we headed toward the Roman Forum- the town hall, temples, a palace, etc. 
Again, these ruins are very well preserved and offer much to see. Lucky us, we caught some excavation in action on our way to the Forum. 
It is amazing that a fully functioning, modern-day city has just developed itself around the Colosseum, Forum and history in general. Roads, modern buildings, vendors and sidewalks surround it all. The Colosseum essentially sits smack dab in the middle of a road. Insane!

Semi-full view

The glare of the sun.

"Here lies Julius Caesar!"

Supposedly the grave of Julius Caesar.

SPQR - The Senate and People of Rome. These letters are branded all throughout the city.

Spanish Steps. Not much.

The day is young on this tour, we still have several more big sights to hit. Rome is huge, therefore it has alot of history to show us.
Once we browse the Forum, Eirini meets back up with us, we tell Marco Ciao and head toward the other side of the city to continue sightseeing.

We stop at the Spanish Steps. That's all it is- steps. Honestly not much to see. Of course there is historical significance. It symbolizes linkage, otherwise I have nothing to say in regard to the steps.

Next is Trevi Fountain. We've all been dying to make our wishes and throw coins into the fountain. We spent a good 20 minutes snapping photos here and the square where the fountain is located was packed!

Next we are herded to the center of Rome where the Pantheon is, yet another historical building surrounded by modern day architecture. The Pantheon was labeled a temple and dedicated to all of the Roman gods, not one specific. What makes the Pantheon so unique is it's architecture. The roof of this building is not enclosed. It is not a dome, the open circle in the ceiling is called the Oculus. Because of the weight of construction materials during its construction, builders knew the material would be too heavy to hold if they enclosed the Pantheon. Avoiding future collapse and damage, they simply left a perfect circle unclosed in the center of the structure later known as the Oculus. In my opinion, the Oculus is what makes the Pantheon so majestic. On this particular day, the sun shines through sending a perfect ray of light into the room. Even better, the remainder of the room remains dimly lit, except for wherever the beam of light shines in.

After all the sights were seen, I grabbed lunch with a few others then split off to shop around and explore on my own. Just wanted some time to soak in all of the scenery. Such a beautiful town. The streets are narrow and the buildings are tall and all are different shades of oranges, reds, yellows and greens. Utterly mesmerizing.

Well, finally we made it back to the hotel and our long day is yet to be over. Tonight we were headed out for a pub crawl around the city. It was an organized, get a free t shirt at the end of the night kind of thing. We started at a small bar that provided a welcome shot and two free drinks. Oh, and pizza! There were several other tour groups there as well and we all quickly loosened up and began making friends with everyone.

YAMAS!

From this beginner bar we headed to a bigger, more club type bar- a million blocks away. Again, we were in a herd being guided to our destination. That got old real quickly. At this point everyone is loosened up and in party mode. The dance floor doesn't stay vacant for long. And we met even more people, whom we dragged to our final destination at a club even more blocks away. This club, however, didn't end so brightly for most of us. We are all there to have a good time with each other and the grabby men of Europe could not comprehend that we weren't interested in dancing with them. They also can't grasp the concept of "keep your hands to yourself." It was late so we got our free shirts, jumped in a few cabs and headed back to the hotel for the night to crash.
Welcome to Rome! What a day!