Seeing the Ruins

Last night we strolled to Trevi Fountain. It is a fountain that is 85 feet high and 65 feet wide.  It is still fed by an original aqueduct from the Roman Empire. It has been in numerous movies.  Supposedly, it brings you luck to toss a coin over your shoulder to bring you luck.  So obviously, Amy had to try it.

We then returned to the Pantheon for dinner and wine.

This morning we caught up with our guide (after I screwed up the meeting time) and toured the ancient ruins of Rome.  The size of the original structures is beyond belief.  Even now the Colosseum is much larger than the Panthers stadium, even though only a third of it remains.  It was large enough so that they could flood the bottom two levels and conduct battles with warships in the arena.  It had elevators and a retractable roof.  In one particular bloody 123 day festival, 10,000 animals and 5,000 gladiators died for the pleasure of the audience.  Tomorrow we see the Vatican.

Amy's turn.  So, Fred FINALLY got into the tourist spirit and tossed a coin into Trevi Fountain.  (Julie, Will and Stephen, I told him that the legend said if he did so, he would be able to get wifi anywhere in Italy for the next 10 days. He was astounded to see that everyone else was interested in getting free wifi since they were ALL tossing coins in the fountain!!!).  Today we learned that Rome is the city of love, since Roma is "amore" (word for love) spelled backwards.  So it's totally appropriate that we are here on our honeymoon, don't you think?  The Colosseum was spectacular.  Emma, I couldn't help but think of "The Hunger Games" when they described the gladiators that fought there.  Also, we saw men dressed as Roman soldiers and gladiators at each entrance, they looked exactly like the cast from our local "Walk through Bethlehem".  Tomorrow we'll post photo's from Vatican City.