Jet lag is still an issue, but we manage to get a good night's sleep. The hotel's coffee is excellent and gives us a good kick start for the day.
We start the day with San Pietro in Vincoli to see the Michaelangeo "Moses". En route to our next stop, the Basilica of San Clemente, we run across a major protest march down by the Colosseum. I'm bad at estimating crowds but this one was easily in the tens of thousands, probably more. Lots of whistles blowing, bands playing, noise, flags, and signs. I was delighted and amazed, Scott less so. Once it became clear that we'd have to cut through the crowd to get to our next stop, I got a little nervous, but we eventually found an ebb in the crowd and cut through it.
We spent a fair amount of time at San Clemente because it's got three places of worship on one site. At the very bottom, a temple of Mithras. Scott is big on Arthurian legends and the cult of Mithras plays a part in them. This is the first time either of us has seen a temple of Mithras and we're both impressed. Then a 4th century church is built on top of that, and finally a third church on top of the old church. Scott loves to touch the oldest walls and he gives these little happy sighs as he revels in the sense of antiquity around us.
We buy a few postcards and find out from the lady who sells them that the protest march we saw was related to pension reform. I feel vaguely disappointed, I think I had expected it to be an anti-war march of some sort, but apparently pension reform is a Very Big Deal in Europe these days.
The Rick Steves guidebook saves us a lot of time at this point. We go to the Palatine Hill to buy access tickets - they will also get us into the Colosseum, but without having to wait on the much, MUCH longer ticket line there. We tour the Palatine Hill site while we're there. Some nice views, and Scott made friends with a cat who was taking the sun in one of the gardens. Feral cats are all over Rome. Most are shy of people but a few have realized that being friendly gets them attention and presumably food as well.
And speaking of lunch, we were pretty hungry by now. We knew better than to eat at the overpriced sandwich stands which cater to tourists at the Forum and Colosseum, but were too hungry to wander too far away either. We settled on a somewhat touristy hostaria called Angelino Ai Foro a few blocks away. For an overpriced tourist spot, the food was actually pretty decent. My tagliatelli w/mushrooms was quite good, although ordering carciofi alla Giudea was a bit of a reach. I didn't care. I love artichokes.
After lunch, back on the tourist path. I found the Forum to be somewhat depressing. It's lots of bits and pieces of things; a column here, a part of a wall there. Mostly just brickwork with bits of marble piled up or attached, and it seemed to me to be a lot of guesswork in trying to reassemble some of the bits. But still, it's a glimpse into the past and you certainly wouldn't want to eradicate what's left. The Curia is more or less intact - surprise, it was turned into a church - and I loved the patterning on the marble floor.
Next, the Colosseum. You have to wend your way through hucksters selling the usual tourist crap and fake Gucci handbags, guys dressed up as gladiators who for a few Euros let you take their photo, and tons of tourists to get in. And once we got there, I was strongly reminded of Yankee Stadium. It's a large, impressive site, but not in and of itself as thrilling as it could have been. You can't tour most of the place, just promenade around the edges, which may have been why I felt that way. Or maybe I was just getting tired.
We had plans to meet up with my parents and the Schwartzes at 5:00 at Nero's Golden House for a tour, and we had about 45 minutes to kill, so Scott and I stopped at a cafe for a rest and a drink. I ordered a "caffe fredo" and probably due to my bad accent, confused the waiter, who asked if I wanted "shaken coffee". I thought I had ordered correctly but apparently not. I felt bad about it. The coffee was good though.
The Domus Aurea of Nero has only recently been opened to the public, and it was a chilly, damp bust as far as we were concerned. The tour was not well organized, poorly lit, and a little boring. We took the subway back to our hotel, rested for about an hour, and then the evening festivities began. First over to a hole in the wall bar for a quick drink with my sister, aunt, uncle, & their kids, then a dash over to Trastevere with my parents for dinner. We ate at the Spirito DiVino and it was another excellent meal, although by the end of the evening I was so tired I fell asleep in the taxi.