Rome Day 3

 Tina and I left the kids behind for the morning and went to see a few things by ourselves. As it was only around 9am the city hadn't transformed into a brutal parched hellscape yet.

We visited the Trevi Fountain and Tina didn't want to throw a coin in (the legend is throwing a coin over your shoulder means you will return to Rome someday). Pieter and I came back later and tossed coins in, but just pennies as I'm too cheap to spend more. The fountain was quite crowded both times. It is bigger than I expected though.

After paying 5 euro for a coffee we ran into a Mcdonald's selling them for 1.50 euro. We carried on to the Pantheon which can perfectly fit a 142 foot diameter sphere under the dome. It was a really cool building that used to be a place for all gods but at some point around 1500 years ago our God came by and told the rest of them to get lost so now it is a Catholic place of worship. Tina had to dump some of her 5 euro coffee as the Italians working there don't know that the place has built in drains in case of any spills, or if it decides to rain for once and water falls through the Oculus in the center. The Romans were pretty smart and thought of everything.

We also saw yet another fake beggar outside. She was really over the top and you could tell it was a costume, complete with fake "hump" which when you looked close was clearly just a rolled up towel. Apparently most of the time they are young women disguised as old women.

We saw an obelisk with an elephant at the bottom and also went into the home base church for the Jesuits. Later, after noping out of climbing the 150ish steps up to this old church we went up the far more manageable ramp designed by Michaelangelo next door,

We went to the Capitoline museums and they had quite a collection. We didn't have time to even see half of it. Some sculptures and art I've only read about. The statue pieces are all that's left of a giant statue of Constantine the Great that would've been in a spot we saw yesterday in the roman forum.

We went back to the hotel by a bad a route. It was so hot we almost bought a water for 2 euros from one of the guys who walk around trying to sell them. 

On the metro we saw some young girls get "stuck" in the metro door in a big group, even though the subway car wasn't crowded at all. They promptly got off at the next stop. We figured this was a common tactic we'd read about where they will bunch up like that and quickly rob someone as they get on or off the subway in the commotion. I'm not sure if they got anyone this time. Our suspicions were confirmed by a local lady who made hand gestures to us to "keep an eye on your purse/wallet" and then gestured in their direction. We never keep anything more valuable than 50 euro other than my camera outside of my money belt / hidden pockets so we're pretty safe.