Forum and Colloseum

I didn't sleep well at all---both of her parents snored really loud and so I slept maybe a few hours but it was a long night with the noise.
We got up at 8 and headed down to breakfast which consisted of croissants (not a huge fan of the warm,buttery, flaky bread), cereal (one like corn flakes and one like rice krispies--which tasted like Special K), yogurt-plain and raspberry (mmmm loved the yogurt), mini toast crackers (in a package there were small breads thats looked like mini (about 3 inches maybe) toast and was fairly good with a little bit of jelly----mmmm and they had cherry jelly), also served a larger roll with I put jelly and nutella on. My favorite thing was this pound cake which was so good---I dipped it in the yogurt---mmmmm it was much like a pound cake here but served for breakfast. Italians eat a lot of sweet--cakes and cookies for breakfast.The drink they had were cafe americano, pineapple juice, OJ, water, and hot milk (i took it the first day because I thought it was regular milk, but was showed wrong when it burned my lip on the first sip).
Then it was off to the Metro (cost 1 Euro/ride). We had to take the B-line and then change over to the A-line to get to the Forum. The Forum is what is left of the old Roman rubble and city. We walked slowly around the remains. There were only a few pillars left, a few bases left of buildings from thousands of years ago. We walked the entire Forum and then to Palatine Hill.
Then it was off to the Colosseum---which was probably one of my most favorite places. I enjoyed learning about the structure (all the info was printed in English as well). After getting inside, we headed toward the center where we saw the stage which was removed to show where the animals and prisoners were help before battle. Much of the education shared was about hoisting the animals, the many fights that happened there, and how it was destroyed in a city fire. We decided to move to the second floor which meant 4 long staircases. Looking out over the bottom, it appears like a big stadium, however entirely rock. I felt the Colosseum was more interesting than the Forum because there was information in English to read about and understand what was what and how this place was used thousands and thousands of years ago. I wish we could have spent more time here, but we were off to Catacombs next.
We jumped on a bus and were on our way. The Catacombs are the ancient, human-made subterranean passageways for burial or protection. Many Christians were buried at the one we saw when Christians were being prosecuted. We met up with Jo & Fabio and all took the 1 Euro tour.
There were many different language tours--French, Spanish, Italian, English,Chinese... among a few others and the guy announcing could do each announcement in every language--it was outstanding he had each accent and pronunciation down. I was very impressed as he called each group in their native language.
When he called English we head to be education first about the Catacombs and then were taken down. Many tombs were family tombs---each parent had an arch-shape tomb where the parents went and then around the tomb were small rectangle tombs where their children, grandchildren, and family went. If only a moon shape tomb was there, they had no kids, but many family tombs were packed with several tombs.  Some of the bodies were actually inside the tombs and these remained closed with bricks lying over the tomb, however, the bodies that had been removed show an open tomb. It was just freezing down there----it felt like full blown air conditioning. There were a total of 4 underground floor, however we were only allowed to level 2, the other two were being excavated still and discovering more bodies. But boy was it cold. At the very end we got to see two bodies which they uncovered from the tombs--one was a girl and one a boy----there was very little left of each body--I could barely make out the skeleton structures.
After coming back up and enjoying the sun to defrost, Amy, her parents, and I jumped back on a bus to St. Giovanni church. Her parents wanted to see that church so Amy and I went back with them. Then we jumped on another bus to the Piazza Novona where we met up Jo and Fabio again for dinner. We ate off the main roads (which was highly suggested by everyone who lives there---because the rest are tourist traps) at a place called Cul de Sac. Again we had some white wine, bread, and a meat/cheese plate for antipasto. I ordered a Sicilian pasta dish which was soooooo delicious. It was made with a tomato sauce, with eggplant, parmesan, the noodles were thick and twisty. It was very tasty and fresh mmmmm! Then we went back to the hotel, it was getting a bit chilly this evening--had goosebumps the whole way back. On our way back, we bumped into Father Dave who showed us his balcony view from his hotel. We enjoyed the few for a few minutes and then returned to the hotel. Amy and her parents enjoyed some wine in the lobby and I took a shower and went to bed!