Our hostel room was on the fifth floor, had no air conditioning, and an utter lack of showers and toilet paper—but we were in Rome so we almost hardly noticed. After our usual post-bus-ride nap, we spent the better part of an hour lookin’ for the tourism office to buy a 3-day transit/admission pass. With some time before sunset, we went to see the Colosseum and Constantine’s arch which were just as impressive and awe inspiring as one would expect. The Roman Forum was also particularly awesome. We found it hard to believe that architecture so grand was built thousands of years ago. And these are just ruins!

After our wander through the Forum we made our way up to the Capitoline to see Michealangelo’s famous facades and oval design. The Capitoline is the ancient seat of government which still houses government offices. From there, we walked around town a bit, through the ancient Circus Maximus (site of chariot races—like the Big House of ancient Rome), then back to the hostel.

We were going to head back out later on, but the metro was closed for some reason. Instead, we found some food locally and hit the sack early.