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| Arch of Constantine |
Day 2- September 9, 2010: Roma! Our very first experience was trying to withdraw euros from an ATM in the airport with my card. We had informed the bank ahead of time that there would be international withdrawals so we expected no problems. However, when we attempted to withdraw money, we got an error code, "Your card is not authorized for international withdrawals." I totally panicked. Foreign country, less than $20 in cash, and no way to get money. So we wasted 10 euros trying to make an international call to our bank which would never go through. Then Nathan decided to try his own ATM card....and it worked. Apparently card machines are very fickle in Italy so we had this experience multiple times during our trip, though with a little less panic.
First stop? The Colosseum! It was definitely incredible. The whole place was huge. We made the mistake of paying for a tour guide who annoyed us by repeating the phrase "you must remember" and conveniently losing us after 15 minutes. Our feet were already hurting when we headed way out of our way to find a restroom and lunch. Next, we walked around Palatine Hill, the Forum, and the Museum of Italian Reunification which was pretty unbelievable. We got gelato for the first of many times and found it to be very yummy! We took a round about route to the Pantheon which turned out to be my favorite site of the day. The Pantheon was gorgeous and an incredible architectural feat for its time. We ate dinner in the piazza across from the Pantheon in front of a very pretty fountain. It was a very pleasant area with musicians taking turns playing for money. Unfortunately, our first experience with Italian wine was entirely mediocre and accompanied by disappointing deserts. Eventually, after getting lost, we found our way back to the metro.
Our hotel turned out to be a good deal farther from the metro station than I had thought and was at the back of some rather sketchy dark roads. It was, however, a very pleasant, nice hotel and we were more than happy to crash after more than 24 hours of traveling.
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| Arch of Constantine |
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| Arch of Constantine |
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| Nero's Old Digs |
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| Palatine Hill, the Dungeons |
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| Palatine Hill |
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| Ancient Rome, isn't it incredible? |
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| Tickle, tickle.... |
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| Museum of Italian Unification |
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| Dome of the Pantheon |
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| Inside the Pantheon |
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| Statue inside the Pantheon |
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| A Column in the Pantheon |
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| Apparently a Roman Daffy Duck |
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| Rather Odd Fountainheads |
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| Sideways but a very interesting pillar with men walking up in a spiral all the way around it. |
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| My Favorite Pic of the Colosseum |
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