As much as I complained about everywhere else being too much like Seattle, I think I preferred that to the heat. I'm not sure what the temperature was today while I was walking around the city, but it's 70 right now and the high for tomorrow is 79. I ended up going through three bottles of water and wishing I had more.
Woke up this morning feeling slightly better, but still not great; I think the antibiotics are finally starting to gain ground on the sinus infection or whatever it is I've got. Since this is the first of three full days I've got here (got in early enough yesterday that it could've been four, if I felt up to it) I decided I had to get out and see stuff anyways. The guys at the front desk of the hostel recommended doing the ancient section of the city today, so I went for that. First stop was actually a short trip back to the main train station to hit up an ATM and pick up a Roma Pass: 25 euro gets you three days worth of transport on the metro/bus system, free entry to the first two museums/archaelogical sites you visit (not counting the Vatican), and reduced ticket prices to any other sites you visit after that. I generally prefer metro/subway systems to buses, but Rome may change my mind on that... this has got to be the worst metro system I've ever been on. It's got fairly long waits between rides (10+ minutes in one case), and the two lines only connect in one place (Termini, the main train station), which means that for a few stations out from there all the cars are crammed full. On the bright side that means it's too cramped for anybody to even think about stealing from you (the last warning I got before leaving the hostel was to "watch out for gypsies and pickpockets"); on the not-so-bright side, none of the people I was scrunched up against were attractive females. Oh well.
First stop: the Colosseum. Some day when I'm rich I'd like to try buying a private tour that will take me to the basement levels and what's left of the top level, but even the first and second levels are incredibly impressive. There should actually be quite a bit more of it left, but with the fall of the empire and the rise of Christianity (which made the fights much less appreciated) it fell into disuse and people started raiding it for building supplies. Most of what they took was the marble veneer, but they also went after the iron supports that the Romans had put in to help it withstand shocks, like the earthquake that finally knocked down a large section of the walls.
Second stop: the Palatine Hill, home to the old imperial palace and, in theory at least, the original hut of Romulus. The views from the top were fairly impressive, and we got to see part of something that they actually just discovered in the last year or so: Nero's dining hall. It was apparently used for extra long feasts or celebrations, and would rotate along with the sun to keep the room well lit and providing a good view. How crazy is that? From there it was down the back side and into the Forum, home to the original temple of Vesta and the shrine/temple to Julius Caesar, among other things. Unfortunately most of it is in ruins, but again, still very impressive. From there I wandered over to the Tiber, crossed over one of the bridges and came back by way of an island in the middle, then walked to what used to be the Circus Maximus. Originally a stadium for horse and chariot races that could seat upwards of 300,000 spectators, now it's just a depression in the ground with the remains of a track visible. I walked most of a lap (they've got one of the ends closed off for drainage/restoratation) because I'm crazy like that, then caught the metro back as close as I could to the hostel, rehydrated, and took a nap.
Not sure yet what tomorrow will bring... either the Vatican or one of the other sections of the city, depending on what the hostel folk recommend. Now to wait for the pictures to finish uploading....
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