Holly and Elodie's big day out...Rome

26 June – Rome

Today we went out to the busy streets of Rome. We got up at around 8.00am to get an early start for our first day of touring Rome. It was sunny and hot. In the morning we went to the colosseum and walked around it again. Awesome. We got our photos taken with some fake (as Erin calls them) gladiators.

The Colosseum used to be used for gladiators and animals to fight. They have little underground dungeons to keep the gladiators and animals in. It is the most important monument from ancient Rome.

We were going to buy tickets to get into the Colosseum but the line was really long so we went to find the open top sightseeing bus which goes around all the main sights of Rome. We found the bus and hopped on. The sightseeing bus had 2 different routes, the red and the blue. We went on the Red first. We had a fun time on the bus. We listened to the audio on the bus with headphones. We got on and off the bus at different spots.

We saw lots of incredible old, not so old, and new buildings and monuments, statues and plenty of ancient ruins.

We saw the Tiber River, St Peters Square and Basilica, Piazza Repubblica, the Pantheon, Castel Sant’Angelo, Piazza Popolo, Piazza Venezia etc …… We got off at a few stops including one where we walked a few blocks to the Trevi Fountain and then the Spanish Steps.

We had pizza and gelati for lunch at the Trevi. Elodie had tiramisu, coffee and caramel gelati, Holly had Chocolate and mint in a waffle cone, Erin had Strachiotella and Chocolato in a cup, we can’t recall what mum and dad had but we think it was something like mint and chocolate. Elodie, Dad and Holly got a coke from the corner cafe. We walked along some streets with all the big fashion shops Gucci, Prada …. Mum was keen to buy something but dad got us out of there pretty quick.

We got back on the sightseeing bus on a different route and saw some more places. We then went to the Stazione and posted some postcards at the post office. They aren’t very quick at the post office in Italy. Took us ages. Dad had to post some work stuff, a CD, and they didn’t even have a cardboard postpak. We went to catch the Blue bus but had to wait for 15 minutes so Holly bought a new hat at a little shop at the park. We got the bus around some more sights and back to the colosseum for another quick look at it and the Forum. We walked back to the place we are staying at and on the way back we got a Calippo (cola and lime). When we got home we had chicken pasta and Sprite for dinner. Yum. We did an acrostic poem for Tuscany (the last place we stayed at).

During the day we spent a lot of time at the Trevi fountain. We threw some coins with our right hand over our left shoulder into the fountain.

We took heaps of photos. It is probably the most famous fountain in the world. We read that Rome is full of fountains. The Trevi is the largest Baroque period (several hundred years old) fountain in Rome.

Holly thought the Trevi Fountain was amazing because of all the detail and the sound. Elodie thought the Trevi Fountain was amazing because of the sound and the environment.

We read that the fountain is at the end of the ancient aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. In 19 BC Roman technicians located a source of pure water some 13 km from the city and built an aquaduct to carry the water to the city. The Roman custom was to build a beautiful fountain at the endpoint of an aqueduct. A basin was originally built there and then in 1732 the fountain was commenced and was completed in 1762. The central figure of the fountain is Neptune, god of the sea. He is riding a chariot in the shape of a shell, pulled by two sea horses. Each sea horse is guided by a Triton.

A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. It came true for mum and dad and Elodie who were here 8 years ago. This was dad’s 3^rd time at the Trevi.

Did you know that an estimated 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day. The money has been used to subsidise a supermarket for Rome's needy.

There has been lots of famous movies filmed at the Trevi including Lizzy Maguire. She met Palo at the Tevi Fountain.

The Spanish Steps are a set of steps up a hill between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church at the top. We read it is the widest staircase in Europe.

One other really interesting place we went to was the ruins of the Theatre of Pompey. It was a structure in Ancient Rome built over several years around 50 BC. It was one of the first permanent theatres in Rome. The Theatre had lots of buildings, large covered areas, expansive gardens, fountains and statues and rooms dedicated to the display of art and other works collected by Pompey Magnus.

At one end of the garden complex was a meeting hall for political meetings. The senate would often use this building along with a number of temples and halls that satisfied the requirements for their formal meetings. This is infamous as the place of Julius Caesar's murder in 44 BC by the “Liberatores” of the Roman Senate and elite who stabbed him to death. We are going to go inside the Colosseum and the Forum tomorrow and hope to go to St Peters basilica and the Vatican City and walk through the Vatican and Sistine Chapel tomorrow arvo.

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From Elodie and Holly :)