Veni Vidi Vici

I'm not sure whether I've conquered Rome, or Rome has conquered me, but either way, there's been a whole lotta conquering going on!

Either way, we'll both live to fight another day, but I am beat for now.

I got up early this morning and headed more or less straight to the Colosseum. Now, granted, its only half the size of Michigan Stadium, and is almost as run-down as Ohio Stadium, but I gotta admit, I was impressed.

I guess its just something that I found I could relate to, much more than all the grandeur and history of the Vatican. I guess if I were more religious, The Vatican would have just floored me (as it was, it was impressive as, uh... heck). But being inside the Colosseum was just really, really cool. The fact that it was the only thing I absolutely wanted to do today, and I got there early and it was still nice and relatively cool, helped. I took my time walking around it several times, and plopped down on some steps 'on the 50' for a while and just let my imagination wander.

My name is Tristan, and I'm a stadium-a-holic.

After that, I wandered over and had some lunch, then caught a tour of Palatine over-looking The Forum. By this time, though, the mid-day heat was brutal, and I was already feeling exhausted after yesterday. (I estimate that I probably walked at least 10 miles yesterday, and that's not including the 550+ steps I climbed to the top of the dome of St. Peter's.)

I slowly made my way over to San Clemente, which was really cool in more ways than one--a 4th century church, with a 2nd century church that's been excavated beneath it, with a pagan temple one level below that, even! Aside from being fascinating, it was a great reprieve from the heat on the street.

By the way, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans', in my experience here, primarily means, 'jaywalk like a crazy mofo'. Seriously, that's been the one thing I've followed the locals' lead on. They're pretty insane, but it seems to be the only way to get across a lot of the busy streets.

Anyways, Rome has been great, and while I'm sure I could spend weeks here discovering great new stuff all the time, I've seen all the highlights I was hoping for, and frankly am ready to be done with it.

Tomorrow I catch a train up to Florence and should be seeing a familiar face (my friend Jen) for the first time in three weeks! I'm looking forward to that more than anything right now. Except maybe a shower and a good night's sleep.