I do, in fact, look like Medusa. I couldn't stay up any longer, it was about 10:30pm when I went to bed with my hair wet. But nothing a little water and a fluff won't fix.
Jay got up around 6am and went for a run, I couldn't go back to sleep so I read for a bit in bed, opened up my phone to a plethora of text messages, got myself caught up (even though it's midnight at home) and now it's 7:26am, I've woken the girls up no less than 3 times so they can get ready because we have to leave here about 8am to walk to the Colosseum this morning for our 8:30am entry tickets. One, because we wanted to try to get on this time zone as quickly as possible and two, because it's fucking hot. We will likely spend some time back in the apartment mid-afternoon before heading out again later.
These are Jay's pictures from his run.
Yesterday afternoon I forgot to put in that we signed Paige up for another of her courses, an online version of Psychology - so that if she doesn't get the in person one she can do it online and she'll likely just attend the lecture regardless but do her assignments online. Thanks for that tip Julia!
Also, the water bottles here the lid is attached by a little extra piece of plastic that won't tear off, like it's not perforated all the way around when sealed and I said I found that annoying. Paige said "It's not annoying, it's so that your lid doesn't fall off and you have to hold it, it's innovative". She's right, I found it much less annoying that I couldn't tear it off, even with brute strength, when I knew it had a purpose. And I also remembered that when I tore my lid off with gusto on the airplane and promptly dropped it and it slid under my seat so then I had to drink my entire bottle of water before take off or risk being drenched when the plane accelerated.
Everyone was miraculously ready to leave by 8am so we set out to walk, about 18 mins, to the Colosseum. We saw a breakfast place Paige asked if we could come to tomorrow for breakfast and stopped for a croissant and water at a local patisserie (20Eur for 3 pastries and 4 waters - I got an apple streudel (which I thought was a croissant but that turned out to be a lemon cream croissant which now I must try), Jay got a pastry with cream and chocolate chips and Paige got a nutella stuffed croissant) which we enjoyed on the way.
When we got to the Colosseum there was a big line to join but it went pretty quickly, I had received an email with our tickets but also instructions to download an app and insert our separate ticket numbers into the app so we had to show both the app and the tickets a number of times to get in - the last time I think was to activate the time because you have 75 mins at the Colosseum and a 2 day pass for another Museum (which we don't plan to go and see).
The Colosseum is pretty incredible, it was built by Jewish slaves in 8 years, thousands of them were brought to build it.
I think the only thing left on Sophie's list of things she wanted to see is coming for photos of the Colosseum at night when it's lit up and Trevi Fountain either at night or early in the morning.
A HUGE thank you to my client, Susan, who I had told I bought hand held, rechargeable fans for the girls Graduation ceremony because it's notoriously hot and said "Take those with you to Italy, you'll be happy you did". We are SOOOOOO happy we did. The fans make it downright civilized to walk around and dry the sweat off your brow before more can appear. We're walking back to the apartment, Jay is going to go and cool off while we shop except the shops don't open until 10am so now we're all back at the apartment at 9:30am for a top down wardrobe change.
My calf has been surprisingly good considering the uneven footing and number of stairs we have done. Last night all those stairs were even in my little wedge dressy dinner shoes because I didn't know we were going to sprint up to the top of the "birthday cake" as the Roman's call the Palazio. I strained it about 2 weeks ago at Activate with Jay and the Girls on Fathers' Day and went straight to physio and acupuncture treatments within 48 hours and it was feeling good at home but I wasn't sure how this would be and it's been great.
So...after this we all napped until noon. Even me, and I don't nap. I was on the couch, Jay in our room and the girls in their dark cave at the back with the AC pumping.
Paige wants to go to Brandy Melville and Sophie wants to shop for a purse so we ventured down the Avenue to a shopping district. Its so hot. An IG video came up when we got back and it was kind of an IG vs Reality thing where the girl had some beautiful photos of her in Rome and then her talking to the camera - her direct quotes "makes me feel like I've just crawled out of Satans asshole after a heavy night of vindaloo; the eggs in my fallopian tubes are hard boiled; my nostrils are sweating; I am moist to the touch; Darling, I love you but don't touch me because your hands feel like they've been dipped in hot lava". lol. Pretty much sums it up.
We had lunch up there, I checked reviews on 3 places before we went to the 4th. Jay and Paige want to sit inside where it's got AC - Jay and I shared a chicken salad sandwich (which came on a crustless thin wonder bread type square cut into triangles with a thin amount of chicken salad in it) and a diavola pizza (thank god for the pizza because the sandwich was just a nibble. Sophie got a caprese salad, so did Paige but Paige also got a margarita pizza which was delicous. It was an expensive lunch though, a bottle of water and 2 coke zeros and it came out to 98 Eur which is almost $160.
We got back and I FaceTimed my Mom a little bit, Jay and the Girls are in their rooms. I've made reservations at 2 different restaurants near the Colosseum tonight so that we can go there and get some night views and then come back and do Trevi on the way home. I sent the menus to the Girls and Jay and they can decide which one to cancel - one is a rooftop but we're not guaranteed the rooftop because they also have an interior and the other is on the street across from the Colosseum. We can also just go and see what we find.
I'm on bra #3 for the day, these prosthetics might be light weight but they're not breathable. I almost only brought 2 bras and at that last minute put a 3rd one in because I had the space. Thankfully they're machine washable (the bras and the inserts) and at home I've thrown them in the dryer too but we don't have a dryer here just a washer. At the next place we have a big terrace outside so assume we can hang clothes - right now we have the wash from this morning strewn around the kitchen chairs and table to lay out to dry.
We figured out while we were out that the best place for Sophie to get a bag would be at the Porta Portese Market which is only on Sundays (tomorrow), so we are going to get up early and take a cab over there, go through the market and then come back, grab our luggage and take a cab over to the car rental place to get the car and head to Positano (about a 3.5 hr drive but we'll stop somewhere on the way for lunch), I asked Claude where is a picturesque place to stop and he said Ivri is close to our route but if we wanted to go further (about 20 mins from our route to the ocean, then Sperlonga is a good stop on the coast so we'll see what the day looks like.
My whole fam had naps again - really more like went back to bed, I think the girls slept for 3 hours this afternoon.
We briefly discussed taking a cab to the Colosseum and then walking back (because it's still stinking hot) but they all napped all afternoon so when I said we should walk, we walked. I never regretted my life choices but it was close. Thank goodness for the fans, they have been a complete life saver.
We decided to go to the rooftop restaurant with the view of the Colosseum..it definitely has a view (not like a hang around this corner kind of view, a real view), but it's not really close. I'll put 3 pics below. 1 is a nice picture zoomed, 2 is less zoomed and 3 is reality. (I had to edit them because they were dark so don't mind the yellow sky!)
Dinner was really good - I had steak with a peppercorn sauce and Sophie had it without the sauce and we ordered roasted potatoes to share (with rosemary, so good), Jay had the lamb and got grilled veggies on the side and Paige had a pasta in a red sauce. Jay and I also had a smoked duck appetizer that I'm sure is exactly what it was supposed to be, I enjoyed it but not something that I would order again. It was recommended in a few reviews of the restaurant so I wanted to try it. The girls wanted to try an Aperol Spritz so I ordered one, they each had a sip and then that was it. So Aperol and Hugo spritzes aren't their things. I think that's it for cocktails, lol.
We skipped dessert at the restaurant and decided we would have gelato when we got closer to Trevi fountain after taking some night time photos of the Colosseum.
The walk somehow was just as hot as the way there even though now it's only 29 degrees at 9:30pm. Paige said "it's still warm out, but not like I want to die anymore".
Trevi was a lunchbag letdown again - Sophie didn't even stop to take a photo of it this time, but the gelato was good - I had coffee this time, Jay got chocolate and the girls each got strawberry.
We're back at the apartment and everyone has taken a cool (cold) shower, it's just before 11pm here and I'm finishing this up and going to bed. I'll pack up my suitcase in the morning. We plan to leave the house around 7:45am to go to the market. I said to Jay when I got out of the shower, I think one night in Positano I'd like to just pick up some meat and cheese, bread and olive oil and just eat on the terrace.
21,701 Steps today, 14.38Km and 16 flights of stairs (pretty sure that's just up and isn't counting the downs!)
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