Day 5

It was a 17 hour ride on the night train from Paris, France to Rome, Italy. It wouldn't have take so long but our late departure in Paris meant that we would run into morning train traffic in Italy.


Once out of the station in Rome we loaded our things onto a bus and began our tour of Italy's capital. Our first stop was the coliseum and the forum. We spent around 45 minutes winding our way up, through, and around the coliseum and then grabbed some lunch across the street. Due to time constraints we had a relatively short time to explore the forum, but we made the best of it.










Coolest part for me: We saw the place where Julius Caesar's body was cremated. To this day Romans still come and throw flowers on this spot.

We were running late after regrouping and had to double-time it back to the bus. Our next stop... the catacombs. These were farther out of central Rome than I was expecting. If you are unfamiliar with the catacombs they were an underground burial place and place of worship starting from the 200s. These underground passages were lost and rediscovered several times over the centuries.



Keep in mind we're still working off of yesterday's pre-Versailles shower.


One last stop before we head to our Hotel to get cleaned up and go to dinner. This time our target was the Trevi fountain. It is said that if you toss a coin in the fountain one of two thing will happen. Either you'll return to Rome some day, or whatever wish you make will come true (I tossed a coin in). The fountain is also place to get free Roman water. All over Rome there are spots with running water. You can lean over and take a drink, wash your hands, or fill up your water bottle. We took this chance to refill out water bottles. The water was very cold and refreshing. It was around this time we noticed how close we were to a gelato shop... lucky us!

This taste of gelato would lead to a one or two time per day habit of gelato for the remainder of the trip!