I got up early and headed out towards the Colosseum. Since it was early, I made a quick stop at Trevi Fountain to get some pictures when it’s not so crowded first. After I made my way to the Colosseum I met up with my tour group and we went inside at ground level, where the gladiators would have fought. From that vantage point you could also look down into the sublevels where all the preparation and background work happened, which was pretty cool. After the Colosseum we made our way through Palatine Hill and to the Forum, at which point we were given time to do as we pleased. I wandered around for a bit, looking at the ruins, before making my way to Piazza Venezia and walking up to their Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where they have two armed guards always standing by with a lit fire in memory of those lost. The views from that building, the Altar of the Fatherland, were pretty nice too.
I continued along my way to Largo di Torre Argentina, an excavation site that they’re still working on which also happens to be next to a large TNR cat rescue, sanctuary, and adoption center. They welcomed guests, even tourists to come in and pet cats so of course I did because as I’ve said before that’s just who I am as a person. After taking photos of all the free roaming cats I went inside and donated $30, so the lady told me to pick out one of the hand-painted rocks one of their volunteers made to sell. I took a happy looking ginger painted cat.
The Pantheon was just up the road so I walked over there, but didn’t go in, I was getting hungry. After grabbing something to eat, I headed to Triton Fountain where I met my tour group for the next activity, a tour of three underground ancient buried locations. The first was one of the first Christian catacombs in existence that upwards of 150,000 people had once been buried in. The second was a 12th century church, which had been built on top of an 8th century church, which had been built on a 2nd century rich person’s house, which had been built on a 1st century regular house. You could go down all the levels to see the changes which was pretty cool. The last stop was a church run by Franciscans where they had taken the bones of some 2,500 Capuchins and decorated several rooms with them. Not quite the same as the catacombs in Paris, but odd nonetheless. No photos were allowed in there though. After that tour was over, I jumped in a random pizza place for an okay pizza then headed back to the hotel. That was a lot of walking!
