Italy - Day 3

I think it would have been criminal not to visit the inside of the Colosseum while we were in Rome. So we headed back as early as we could the next morning. The Colosseum is almost indescribable. Massive. Imposing. Beautiful. It could hold 50,000 spectators. The inside was nothing like I expected. The floor only covers about 1/3 of the basement. The basement, called the hypogeum (meaning underground) is a labyrinth of tunnels and rooms. This is where gladiators trained and wild animals were held. Impossible to imagine.

It was such a beautiful day we casually roamed around taking in all the views the Colosseum had to offer. It was there that we finally met one of Rome's feral cats face to face. He was sitting in the sun against a massive chunk of stone, looking almost planted for tourists to stumble upon. I happily snapped his picture.

Next was Rome's Children's Museum, Il Museo dei Bambini di Roma. Eva was so excited for this visit. The girls had walked, been carried and pushed all over Rome. They were very much in need of some kid time. The museum was light filled and welcoming. The best part was that the girls had they place to themselves. They spent the most time in the grocery store area. Unlike the same area of the Seattle Children's Museum, they were able to weigh their produce on scales that spit out bar code stickers. Imagine the joy!

All that and it was only lunch time. As I write this, I'm kind of shocked at how much we did this day. You'll see. After lunch, packing and much stress and chaos we then headed out of Rome (in a rental car) to L'Aquila. Our ultimate destination was a small city on Italy's east coast named, Trani. There we would visit some friends from Seattle, more accurately some neighbors who lived 2 doors down from us in Seattle.

We got into L'Aquila about 3:30. It was an 1.5 hour drive from Rome. And it was an incredibly beautiful drive. Who knew there were so many hill top towns out of Tuscany? Bryce and I lost count. Bryce was delighted to discover we were driving through snow covered moutains of the Apennines range. If you look closely in the photo above you can see snowy mountains in the distance.

We checked into our hotel and then set out to see what we could of L'Aquila. Guess what I saw? A horse butcher shop - carne equina. I should have taken a picture, but it only occured to me after we'd long walked past. For dinner that night we had a picnic in our hotel room. In keeping with Southern Italian cutlure, restaurants there didn't open until 8:00 for dinner. Too late for our tired kiddos. Too late for 2 tired adults too. Day 4 - Trani!!