Italy - Rome Part 2

Back to Rome!

After the magical two days in Venice, we were heading back to Rome. The train was 3 hours and 30 minutes, we arrived Rome just before noon. We grabbed some sandwiches in Rome's train station and headed back to our hotel (Sheraton Roma Hotel & Conference Center) to check in. Since we have half a day left today, we seized our time and went to the most famous landmark of Rome - The Colosseum! We took the metro train from our hotel to the stop "Colosseo". As soon as we walked out the metro station, we followed the sign and quickly we saw The Colosseum!!!

I was so excited, I finally get to see The Colosseum, the famous structure that I have seen in movies and travel shows! I felt so unrealistic to stand in front of this ancient structure; this structure has been standing for thousands of years!

We went in line and bought our tickets; the line wasn't bad since it was the low season. We went in, walked up to the 2nd floor to view its interior. Walking inside the Colosseum made me felt like I am back in the ancient Roman Empire! Looking at the arena and the hypogeum which is the underground structure, I imagined where the gladiators came in and the audiences cheering for them. Although a very cruel "sport" but that was part of the history.

We walked around a whole loop around The Colosseum and took our time to appreciate this great structure! There were mostly students and their teachers were lecturing about The Colosseum, not much tourists, so we felt like we had the whole place for ourselves. Even though it was quite chilly since it was March, we didn't need to squeeze through people to have a spot to take a good photo nor we had to "keep moving".

After The Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine was just right next to The Colosseum. This arch inspired many other arches like Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in front of the Louvre Museum in Paris!

The Roman Forum was right across from The Colosseum but it was getting late in the afternoon so we'll save the Roman Forum for later on!  We walked back to the shops and restaurants area to find a place for dinner. During our walk, we passed by very nice architectures that captured my eyes:

We found an outdoor restaurant located in between main shopping streets. We saw this restaurant with outdoor seating and standing heating lamps, thought it was cute to eat and people watching so we gave it a try.

There were a few restaurants like this one on this street, this was the 1st one and the waiter was nice :)  They also have a "Happy Hour" menu for early-birds like us. It was 14 euros menu for a first course, main course, and wine (too bad I don't drink wine)! I ordered a pizza, it was a full medium pizza came right out of the oven! Very fresh!

I love the pizzas in Rome! After I had pizzas in Rome, I refused to eat Domino's Pizza LOL!

It was an affordable and good dinner! Afterwards, on our walk back to the hotel shuttle pick up stop, we stopped by a grocery store and bought some drinks and sneaks. And somehow we ended up in front of Pantheon, we had been searching for this on our 2nd day in Rome and couldn't find it haha! It was some kind of a special night so it opened late at night and it was free to go in that day!  We went in or else we would never find it again LOL!

It was crowded even at night! The dome structure was incredible! Yay Pantheon - visited!

We headed back to the hotel shuttle pick up stop and waited for the next shuttle bus to arrive. The bus finally came, it felt like I had been waiting forever, and by the time we got to our hotel, we were ready to jump in our bed and sleep! Can't wait for the whole day of Rome tomorrow, so much more places awaiting for us to step in!