Day 2: Rome

6/29/2025

We started our day bright and early by walking to the Colosseum for our tour of the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and the Colosseum. It is 100 degrees out again today, and full sun.

If you have been around this page long enough, you already know that I book 90% of my tours through Viator.com., and 90% of them have exceeded expectation. I definitely recommend visiting Viator, reading the reviews, and booking from there. More often than not, the tours I book through Viator are much cheaper than those available on the cruise.

Anyway, back to today’s tour. We started at 9am and started with the Roman Forum. Our tour guide was not my favorite personality, but definitely knew his Roman history. The Roman Forum is where Roman politics and business took place. The building of the forum started in the late 7th century BCE and continued into the 4th century CE. Unfortunately, due to war and pillagers, much of the buildings were damaged by more than just age and weather. Our guide told us that wherever you see exposed brick, marble once covered it.

It is my hope that I can convey to you the magnitude of this heat at 9am in the morning. It was so hot, with little shade. The good thing is that Rome has water fountains all over. Dan and I each took a water bottle and were refilling it at every stop. Below is a picture of a fountain outside of the Colosseum offering Still and Sparking water. Most water fountains weren’t this fancy, just a spigot, but we were assured it was clean drinking water and encouraged to fill our bottles.

After the Roman forum, where business and commerce took place, and Palatine Hill, where rich people lived, we visited the Colosseum. The Colosseum is not actually the name of the arena, it was actually named the Flavian Amphitheatre. The Colosseum got it’s nickname from a colossal statue nearby. It was built in 1 CE in the Flavian Dynasty. Until the end of the ancient period, it housed many fights between humans, animals, and humans and animals. For over 500 years, the Flavian Amphitheatre hosted 10 events a year and held 50,000-80,000. In 438, the gladiatorial games were outlawed and the Colosseum went through a decline. At this time, many building materials, such as iron and marble, were stolen from the structure and used for buildings such as St. Peters Basilica. Our tour guide repeated to us many times that there is no proof that Christians were persecuted at the Flavian Amphitheatre and that it was built by Jewish slaves. That and the pillaging of goods to build the Basilica were my takeaways from this trip. We would just walk on marble that was 2000 years old. That is mind-blowing to me, considering how young America is in the scheme of civilization.

After our tour ended, we were exhausted and hungry. We took a Taxi to a restaurant we had went to in 2019 near the Vatican. The carbonara was excellent. Our waiter gave Dan and I limoncello shots after we told him we were on a return visit. We showed him a picture of Jack with our waiter from 2019 and he still works there, but wasn’t working until the evening. The inside of the restaurant was full of reservations, so we ate outside, which was, of course, hot.

After lunch, it was naptime. We went back to the hotel to rest and then Kate, Jack, and I went out for gelato and a little shopping. I have felt completely safe our entire time in Rome. We have walked most everywhere. There have been crowded places but overall it has been easy to get around and navigate. The worst part has been the oppressive heat. It is just SO hot.

Next, we had to get to our cooking class, which was also booked on Viator. In our class, we made our own ravioli, fettucine, and tiramisu. The class was easy and fun, but also, you guessed it, hot. After we made the food, we got to eat it. The family sitting next to us is going on our cruise tomorrow, so that was fun.