Itay Trip 2019 Day 2 (12th December) Rome

Very sumptious breakfast in our room

I loved the ham and the coffee

When we were checking in, the nice filipino lady checked with us what time we'll like our breakfast on Day 2 morning, we booked a tour at the Colosseum, so we had breakfast at 9am and went back to bed to get some rest before going out.

I helped P with his jump shot before our tour

Inside the colosseum

We booked the Colosseum underground and level 3 tour with CoopCulture prior to the trip. I've decided to go for this tour instead of the standard three hour tour which normally included the Forum and the Palestine Hill. I loved such historical tours but I was not sure about P so this was the only tour I booked while planning for a trip. I panicked a little as the tour was at 11.25am and we only left Zefiro at 11am. Luckily, we were so near to the colosseum and there were not many tourists during winter. We waited for awhile outside the security check area and finally went in when people from our tour arrived and gathered.

View from the top, and we can see the sky had changed abruptedly

The stairs leading down to the bottom level

At the underground level

View from the top overlooking the Palestine Hill

Our wefie from this viewpoint

A selfie of us inside the colosseum

The weather was good when we took this

View from the top overlooking the Forum

The tour started with the tour guide bringing us to the bottom level of the colosseum, I chose this tour as normally tourists only get to walk around on level 1 of the place but we get to go to the underground level and the top level which is level 3. The guide talked about the history of the colosseum and the structure, then we went to the underground level to see how the mechanics worked in ancient times, how they lifted and brought the animals out to the main square. We went to the highest level and managed to get a bird eye's view of the surrounding areas, this was when we noticed the sky turned really dark, the wind was strong and it looked like it was going to rain. Luckily, we bundled up well this morning as the previous night was really cold in Rome.

View of the colosseum from inisde

At level one of the colosseum

Rainbow over the city

The rain came down just as the guide finished the tour on the topmost level. We were stuck in the colosseum and many tourists rushed in to seek shelter at the covered areas at level one, we also took another half an hour to look at the displays and artefacts while waiting for the rain to stop. Luckily, the sky cleared and the rain stopped, so we decided to head back to Zefiro to rest and get our umbrellas.

Nice view of the colosseum after the rain

One last look before we left 

We did not rest long as it was way past lunch time and we were already hungry. P already missed filipino food so he was checking with the friendly filipino lady at Zefiro about the filipino food options around Rome. He wanted to go to a filipino place near the Rome Termini and we decided to walk 20 min to the place as we had a rest and we were still a bit paranoid about taking the train. On the way to the cafe, we passed Termini and I could feel that the place is quite crowded with tourists and weird people alike, it felt intimidating. P was craving for sisig, so he ordered that at the cafe. It was not really the taste he was looking for, but at least we got our stomachs filled.

We saw quite a few filipino restaurant near Termini

The sisig P ordered

The soupy noodles for me

The train was not crowded

We took the train to Colosseum station

After the meal, it was near 4pm and P wanted to visit the Altar of the Fatherland again as we missed the opening hours of the museum yesterday. We got tired of walking back to Monti area as it was quite a long walk to get to cafe, so we walked to the train station to take the train for the first time. I read from many articles to avoid the Termini as there are many shady people there. I still felt intimidated as there were many graffiti on the train and we were very careful with our valuables and money when we were there. Anyway, the colosseum was only one or two stops away from the Termini so it was a short ride.

We passed the colosseum again

I had been wanting to get a gelato since we got to Rome and I finally had the chance when I saw a small gelato station at the Colosseum station. However, it was a bad choice as it started raining once we got out of the station and it got colder and colder as we walked in the rain, plus I was eating the gelato as we went along. I got a little frustrated as we walked in the wrong direction again, and the sun was already setting by that point.

Back to the landmark again

Nice view of the city skyline

Lovely view

View of the sunset

I was amazed by all these huge pillars

Photo does not do justice to the grand pillars

Nice structure against the sunset

The view from the top

The top outdoor gallery where we get to see the skyline

We went into the museum at the side to get up to the top, and the entrance was free. We got there just in time to see a very nice skyline of the city in the setting sun. The rain had stopped then and there were not many people left in the building at that point. After taking lots of photos, we went down and continued to another famous spot Spanish Steps Piazza di Spagna which is just a little further away from Trevi fountain area.

Our wefie

Piazza di Spagna with the spanish steps behind

We saw many major brands around the Spanish steps area and there were many people walking around, although it was not considered crowded. We walked to the top of the flight of steps and went into the grand church nearby to take a look.

Bright and trendy shops around the area

The church

View from top of the spanish steps

The LV store

We walked down this shopping area to get home 

The spanish steps area is the only places we saw the big brands and bright shops around Rome, it's the main shopping street but of course we dont have the funds to shop in Italy, so we were only there to feel the vibrant atmosphere. We got down to the street directly opposite the spanish steps and realised it can lead us home if we just walk straight. We saw the famous gelato shop Venchi, it looked really good and we stopped for gelato then, it was one of our many times eating the Venchi gelato during our trip.

There was a queue at this shop

The busy servers

All the gelato looked so good

Yummy chocolate syrup

The Venchi waffle

Both of us ordered our own waffles topped with two pieces of ice cream, the waffles were filled with chocolate syrup and it was quite sweet and filling. Honestly, it's two sweet for me and the two scoops of ice cream were rather small, definitely not Gelare size. The taste of the nuts and ice cream was really good though. As we had a late lunch and had such a filling dessert, we did not have dinner this day. We went home and enjoyed the cup noodles we brought to Italy instead. Anyway, there were many small stores below Zefiro Home so we could buy more noodles and asian snacks.

Our dinner for the day