An Absolutely Amazing day in beautiful Rome

*Jason called from Brindisi. Meetings went very well. He will be able to come back today early and meet us at 2p.m. at the Colosseum. Jason said that he was very glad we didn't come--it took almost 7 hours to drive there yesterday.
*Delicious breakfast here at the hotel - Holiday Inn Rome West
*People on hotel bus amazed I would dare go out into the city with 5 excited children by myself. The boys played "Smart Car Find" and pretty much drove every elderly person on the bus crazy as they called out each smart car they found, its color, and the points they had earned from finding that color of car. Hotel bus dropped us off in front of a beautiful building - Monumento a Vittosio Emanuele II - I think. We climbed all over the steps, went into the cathedral, saw pictures of the previous Pope, took our own amazing pictures, saw the Colosseum from it, etc. All white marble and amazing.
*Went down to the bus stop to figure out how to find the hill where the consieer here at the hotel told me were cannons that would be shot off at noon and had marionette puppet plays that she loved watching as a child. The "bus info guy" spoke no English, but I showed him where we wanted to go and he took us right over to a bus, told the bus driver where we wanted to go and we all climbed on. We drove down the craziest street I'd ever been on--no more will I think that Morocco had the craziest streets--Rome puts it to shame. THEY ARE INSANE DRIVERS HERE!! They just don't honk so much.
*Bus driver, who also spoke no English, had me stand right by him so he could tell us when to get off. We arrived at a beautiful bridge, called the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II, and he told us to get off. Then he showed me on my map where we were. We were A LONG WAY from where we needed to go, but he made little walking movements with his fingers and pointed the way to go. I decided there was nothing else to do, so off we went.
*River walk. Found the hill, climbed and walked around the streets. So Italian and fun and beautiful. However, when we reached the top, it was a house, and not the street where we needed to go. A nice English speaking, man told us that he home was here now and pointed to where we needed to go. We were about 1.5 hours from when we needed to meet Jason, so I decided that we better head that way. The road we were on had no buses, so my original plan of finding a bus and riding to the collussum turned into a walking tour of Rome.
*Walked along the River Tevere on the street, Lungotevere Glanicolense. The river isn't clear or clean, but the walk along side of it, up above, was tree-lined with branches just starting to bud out with green leaves and flowers. It was so peaceful and beautiful. The boys got to kick every tree they wanted to, run, jump, etc. and they didn't complain one second about having to walk. The streets were jam packed with traffic, one traffic accident, and the street had those European houses, buildings, etc. that just matched every idea that you've ever had at what Italy should look like. That street turned into Lungolevere della Famesina and then Lungotevere Raffaelo Sanzio. We then crossed the river and went into a beautiful old building that used to be a hospital for army veterans I think. We had some delicious ice cream that was only 1 euro 8 per cone. That was great!
*Walked by the church made famous in Roman Holiday that holds the "truth book" or something like that. Audrey Hepburn sticks her hand into the book, in the movie, and the myth is that if you tell the truth, you are fine. If you lie, the book will bite your hand off. They boys thought that story was so cool. I had them stand on this huge tree stump for a picture with the church in the background. When the picture was taken, Reggie decided to "help" Will off the stump by giving him a pushing start and Will landed in a huge muddy area that was hidden by green grass. Will screamed and then just looked at me with his shoe and most of his calf part of mud buried in gooey mud. We rubbed as much off as possible, and then, with no other choice, went on.
*Up the hill we walked and came to the Circus Maximus. This is where the largest outdoor arena ever built used to be located. We were told, later, by a guide that if you lined up all the marble that was in the seats surrounding it, it would go more than 43 miles! WOW! Today there was a huge concert stage being set up. WE tried to find out who would be performing, but had no luck discovering who it would be. We then came around the corner and saw the arch where we were meeting Jason, right by the COLOSSEUM! It was as magnificent as any picture I'd every seen of it.
*I really wanted to find a tour guide and as luck would have it, a "seller of tours" approached us right then and we were able to book a tour with a man from Italy, but who had only a slight accent and spoke English extremely well. It was the best guided tour I have ever been on. He told so many stories and kept the kids mesmerized the entire time. He will also be giving us tours of the Roman forums and St. Peters and the Sistine Chapel next week.
*The kids were starved, as were we, and we went to a restaurant right by the Colosseum. That was very cool! The pictures we took in the restaurant, with the Colosseum in the background, make it look like a poster! They loved their pizza and spaghetti and delicious ice cream for dessert. It was even better than the ice cream in Paris. We then made it back to get on the 7p.m. bus back to the hotel (I would have like to have kept going until midnight), and got the kids showered, relaxed and in bed. Jason did a truckload of work and is stressed to the max about the new dome skin being manufactured back in Idaho.
*We leave for Florence in the morning, bright and early, Jason hopes.