A note on the title: Whereas Paris is the City of Light and New York is the City that Never Sleeps, Rome is nicknamed "The Eternal City"—and aptly so.
This was the day in Rome I'd been looking forward to with the enthusiasm of a child at Disneyland: The day of old stuff. I've always loved anything to do with ancient Egypt, Greece, or Rome, so the thought of seeing the remains of an ancient city (my first since Jerusalem and, arguably, St. Albans; Ryan's first since he was here in 2008) was beyond exciting.
We had breakfast on our hotel's terrace before setting off for the Colosseo on foot, armed with several downloaded audio tours from Rick Steves. We spent an hour wandering around the Colosseum, looking down at the arena from every angle, before heading through the Triumphal Arch and into the Roman Forum on just the other side of the hill. This was the political and economic center of Rome during its heyday, was the site of Julius Caesar's home and assassination, and saw Rome's rise and fall within less than 1,000 years. We wandered between the remnants of Pagan temples and Christian churches, snuck glances at tour guides' revisualizations of what each spot would have looked like 2,000 years ago. After a long, hot trek up Palatine Hill (Monte Palatino), we wandered through remnants of the emperor's homesteads, Roman baths, gardens, and guest houses. The grandeur of everything we saw, even in ruins, was incredible.
Note the earbuds (we were still listening to Rick Steves).
Just up the hill from the Temple of Saturn, we headed into the Musei Capitolini (Capitoline Museums), which has even more old stuff...much of it discovered and saved from the Foro Romano just beneath it. Constantine's marble twin, which sat in a sept so large it hurt my neck to look up at the top of the arches, sat in ruins in the museum's main courtyard, a single finger taller than Ryan's 6'3" frame. We saw everything from Egyptian sarcophagi to Medusa's slaying, from more than 100 curly marble bearded men to the famous bronze sculpture of Remus and Romulus (the supposed founders of Rome, who were raised by a she-wolf).
Our favorite part of our visit to the Capitolini, however, involved beautiful views of the Roman Forum from an arched hallway more than 25 feet tall, located so high on the hill that we could see the Colosseum in the distance; and a simple panini-and-fruit lunch on the museum's rooftop terrace, looking out over the (new) city.
View of the Roman Forum (Foro Romano) taken from Musei Capitolini.
We finished the day with a Rick Steves tour of Trastevere, our beloved neighborhood of hipsters and lifelong Romans, of twisting cobbled alleys and street side trattoria seating. The tour brought us through historic landmarks that we would've missed otherwise, particularly considering how easy it is to get lost in Trastevere: We saw the ancient home of wealthy Saint Cecilia, patron saint of singers and musicians; 1,800-year-old mosaics and frescoes; Rome's oldest (still-functioning) bell tower; and the beating heart of the neighborhood, a fountain-adorned square filled with soccer-playing children and guitar-playing teenagers.
We wandered over the bridge just after sunset and wound our way through south Rome before stopping at Rimessa Roscioli, which was hosting a wine-paring dinner with local wines, cheese, jams, and meats. When they said the cheese was fresh, they meant that it was made that very morning; and I even forced down a few bites of liver pâté for Ryan's sake. (He had to finish it for me.) One fun fact about Italy: Whereas wine in Napa and Sonoma remains as expensive in the wineries (and surrounding wine towns) as you'd find in a Total Wine in Connecticut, Italian wines are incredibly cheap...and much cheaper than they're being sold for in the U.S., if our wine-lover apps can be believed. That being said, we're trudging around with four bottles of Italian wine in our (already heavy and overpacked) backpacks, and can't wait for the opportunity to sit out in a square in Florence or Venice and enjoy a glass, botellón style.