June 7, 2025: Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, and Vatican Museums

(Written on June 8th by Brian)

Due to a long day of travel and getting into Rome so late, we all started out the day pretty exhausted. However, we started out the day at the Colosseum! I need to rewind a bit to tell you how excited I was to see the Colosseum. I’m sure I learned about it in school and always loved it and wanted to see it since I was very little. But in early high school, the movie Gladiator came out, and it quickly turned into one of my very favorite movies. I think I probably watched it hundreds of times. My high school marching band even performed music from it during my Junior year which was the first year I was a drum major (student conductor) of the band. I don’t think I can understate how much of an effect that movie had on me as a kid. Though I stopped watching rated R movies in college, I was able to find a clean version of Gladiator through a Utah company that edited DVDs. The edit was terrible though, so I only watched it a couple of times. However, Vidangel made this a lot better and easier in the last few years, and so we watched it with all of the kids (minus the gory violence and the inappropriate attempts at relationships) just before coming on our trip. I could still just about quote everything in the movie, and it made it very easy to explain to the kids exactly what happened if anything important was cut out.

Fast forward back to actually walking into the real Colosseum in Rome. I was amazed at how huge it was from the outside.

Colosseum!

Michael, Gabe, Brian, and Nana in front of the Arch of Constantine

We met up with our tour guide, Sabrina from Tours by Locals, and she talked to us about the history while in the line. She was really fantastic and made it interesting for the whole family. Gabe was also extremely excited to see the Colosseum since we watched Gladiator, so that helped as well. I was annoyed that I forgot my sunglasses on one of the sunniest days we’ve had so far, but it didn’t even compare to the joy I had walking into the real thing. I’m not going to lie, I got choked up and nearly cried while walking through the tunnel to the actual arena floor.

Entrance to the Colosseum

Inside the first ring of the colosseum

Another hitching hole

The Colosseum itself stopped being used after Christianity became the official religion, and then became a place where people lived for a while. They even divided up the rooms with curtains, etc. Around this time, the people in Rome started using the Colosseum as a quarry to pull materials from to use in other building projects. They took out all of the statues, a ton of marble, and even the seats. The arena was no longer being used, so why have all of the fancy things there? I was especially impressed with some things Sabrina taught us about the Colosseum:

1. It was the very first amphitheater, which literally means to put two theaters which were half of an oval with a stage and seats around it in a half-circle, and put them together to make one large oval with seats all around. So all of our amphitheaters are actually theaters, since the amphi- prefix means “around”, “on both sides”, or “both”. America nailing the language once again.
2. It was built almost identical to how big modern stadiums are built today, but with less big screens. The passage ways were built under the seats, with gates (they called them vomitoriums, as in the under levels were “vomiting” out people into the seats) where you go out to where the seats are. The gates on the outside were numbered so that you could know where to enter. The arena floor itself had an underground section where they could prepare and store things/people/animals (ok, maybe most modern stadiums don’t have this, but some newer theaters do!).
3. They had the ability to cover ALL of the seats in the Colosseum with a fabric covering to keep the sun off of the viewers. They could do it 2000 years ago, why couldn’t Lavell Edward’s Stadium do it today??

In short, it was an incredible work of engineering, and it’s amazing how much it affected everything that came after, so much so that we are still building them the same way today. Except we call the amphitheaters today stadiums, and the theaters today are amphitheaters. We’re all messed up.

On the arena floor of the colosseum.

This ramp brought up animals, gladiators, or props from the underground for hunts or games

Arena floor

View of the tunnels under the arena floor

Grandma next to an ancient capital

Old stairs to the nosebleeds

View from the 1st level of seats

Greg, Michael, Lara, and Rachel at the first tier of the Colosseum

View of the Arch of Constantine from the 1st tier of the Colosseum

Colosseum Cat houses

Colosseum from near the Arch of Constantine

After the Colosseum, Sabrina took us on a walk to the Roman Forum, which was very close. We walked down into the Forum, had so many explanations about what had happened there and how some of it was preserved by literally being buried in a ton of dirt by the Tiber river. They even ended up building a church on top of what they found out was an older church, only no one knew it existed until they started digging in the new church and found frescos. A lot has been excavated now, but it’s sad to see how much is missing. The buildings were gigantic! 

Triumphal Arch (Arch of Titus) to commemorate the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 69 AD

Julius Caesar walked on this road! 

Taking a rest in the shade

Temple of Antonino and Faustino, later converted to the Roman Catholic church of San Lorenzo in Miranda

Sabrina showing us the Roman Forum then and now

The building in the background has three styles, built in three different time periods. Can you spot them? (Renaissance Building with a Medieval tower on the end and Roman Columns).

Roman Forum

One of the coolest (literally) parts is going into the old church that was found under the new church (anyone lost yet?). It was nice and cool and air conditioned.

Frescos in the Santa Maria Antiqua Church, hidden in the ground underneath another church that was built in 1617. 

Frescoes dating back to pre iconoclastic Roman and Byzantine Art

Early Christian Frescoes

Roman Forum

We ended the tour up near the top of the Palentine hill. She gave us directions to head towards some better (less touristy) places for lunch which ended up being in about the same direction as the Pantheon.

Group picture with our tour guide Sabrina

Nana and Papa (with many of us hiding behind the wall to not photo bomb their photo)

On Palentine Hill

Markets of Trajan, Trajan's Forum

Trajan's Column, North of Roman Forum

"KS" graffiti on the wall--did you do this Papa?

Sign in the bathroom at the restaurant we ate at for Lunch

(From Lara's Facebook post on June 8, since we forgot to talk about the delicious lunch we had that day)

There were many hangry Savilles that needed to be fed and this restaurant understood the assignment and got us fed fast! 

Papa hugs at lunch; she wasn't feeling well

(Now Devri takes over the narration for a minute)

After lunch, we headed to the Pantheon, stopping briefly at a souvenir stand, haggled over prices and whether they would take a card (they kept changing that story. They told Lara and Greg no, they told me yes when I said I didn’t have cash, and then they tried to make us pay by cash again when we had our hat, Roman mini helmet, and magnet all picked out. They were super annoyed to bust out their card reader. They pulled out the card reader for my mom after she started putting all her things back on the rack. I mean, I once pretended to be a business owner, so I get that it costs you extra to use a card, but that’s just one of the costs of doing business, especially if you’re doing business with Americans who have basically gone cashless since Covid. But I digress), and then walked the rest of the way to the Pantheon. 

Walking to the Pantheon, Michael, Lara, Nana, and Greg

I was a little worried that most of our group would bail on seeing the Pantheon due to sore feet and long, touring days, but thankfully, everyone was still down. For the record, I was going to go no matter what, but it was fun going with them. I got choked up walking into the Pantheon. I have wanted to see the Pantheon and the Parthenon for over 2 decades, and I felt so lucky to finally see them both. The Pantheon is a very important precedent in architecture. Since it has been in constant use, it is incredibly well preserved. The Pantheon, commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, was built around 126 AD and built to honor all the gods. It is a large, circular building with a portico featuring 2 rows of Corinthian style columns under a pediment in the front of the building. The porch is linked to the rotunda by a rectangular vestibule, and the rotunda is covered by a coffered concrete dome with an oculus (large hole) that is open to the sky.  To this day, it remains the largest, unsupported concrete dome in the world. In May, 609 AD, the Pantheon was dedicated as a Catholic Church called the Basilica of St. Mary and the Martyrs. 

At the time of its construction, it was a completely unique design, unlike any other Roman building, but it has since been copied multiple times, hence its importance as a precedent in architecture. I told Brian that he needed to be in charge of the kids because I would be too busy drooling over the building and could not be a responsible parent. 

The Pantheon Interior

The Columns! The entasis! The fluting! The Corinthian capitals! The egg and dart motifs! The Oculus! The 2nd century genius that is the Pantheon! It was just incredible. It’s good I didn’t have my sketch book, compass, scale, square, and measuring tape with me, otherwise, I might still be there. We forgot to share the included audio guide with our group before arriving, and I felt a little bad and tried to share my knowledge with Greg, Lara, and my Mom. Maybe even Kirt/Papa. I explained about it being well preserved, about the bulging and tapering of the columns (entasis), the Corinthian columns, how the architrave lines up with the neck of the column (and how when they see buildings where the capital edges line up with the architrave/cross beam, or where the beam overhangs the capital, that that is incorrect and the architect unschooled in classical architecture). I pointed out the egg and dart motifs carved throughout. They all at least pretended to be interested and didn’t make me feel bad for completely showing my architectural nerd side. 

Greg the Photobomber

Pantheon coffered ceiling and Oculus

The Oculus

Corinthian capital

Inside the Pantheon

Pantheon exterior

After the Pantheon, Kirt, Julie, Lara, and Greg wanted to do some shopping, but our crew wanted to go back to our rented quarters to put our feet up before we needed to go to the Vatican. Brian tried ordering us a taxi, but was having no luck. We were at a taxi pickup spot, so we decided to split up and use the taxis that were there.

Waiting for a Taxi right next to the Pantheon

Waiting for a taxi

 My mom, Michael, and I ended up going in one (I tried to get Gabe to come with us, but he refused to sit in the middle, so I kicked him out), and after we pulled away, I felt bad that I left Brian with our two youngest kids. Brian and the younger kids struggled getting another taxi and didn’t arrive at our place until probably 10 or 15 minutes after the rest of us arrived. I started a load of laundry and crossed my fingers that it would finish in time to start the dryer cycle before we needed to head out to the Vatican. I tried to write up about our day in Pompeii, but my iPad battery was dead, so I read a book instead while Brian took a little nap/did hypnotherapy. 

Unfortunately, nobody wanted to get moving when it was time. In my head, everyone would have their shoes on, ready to go out the door by the time the washer stopped so I could throw the dryer sheet inside, turn the knob to the dry cycle (It was a two in one machine), and we could all head out the door. What happened instead was that nobody was ready until 5 or ten minutes AFTER I started the dryer because nobody moved until I finished and started cracking the whip. Sigh. We were just really all very tired by this point. 

A taxi couldn’t arrive soon enough for us to save time with riding in it, so we all had to walk over to the Vatican. Thankfully, it was only a 15 ish minutes to walk there, so we got to walking. We were ten minutes past our intended meet-up time with Lara, Greg, Nana, and Papa, but our guide had already started holding our place in line, so it was all good. (He didn’t get us skip-the-line tickets, so we had to wait in line and hope we made it in before the Vatican Museum stopped allowing visitors at 6 p.m.) Our guide, Giusseppe, taught us about Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel while we waited in line because he wouldn’t really be able to talk in the Sistine Chapel. 

We luckily made it into the museum, and after Giuseppe got our tickets, we went through security, got headsets (provided by the Vatican), presented our tickets, and then got started going up a ramp surrounded by boats. Unfortunately for us the headsets the Vatican uses were not very good, and we all really struggled hearing Giuseppe. He took us through so much of the museum in our short time with him, and we were able to pick up some of what he was trying to put down. 

Inside the Vatican; St. Peter's in the background

"Sphere within a Sphere" by Arnoldo Pomodoro in 1990 in the Pine Cone Courtyard is the same size as the sphere on the finial of St. Peter's Dome

Egyptian Mummies

"Laocoon" circa 1st Century B.C.

Gallery of Tapestries

Gallery of Maps

Incredible ceilings

Room of the Immaculate Conception

We saw paintings, tapestries, mosaics, carvings, sculptures, and even original copies of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception before making our way to the Sistine Chapel. There were no photographs or videos allowed in the Sistine Chapel. When Michael asked why, I explained that it is a holy place to the Catholics, much like our temples, and we don’t allow the visitors at our open houses to take photos when they tour our temples. That made sense to him, as it did to me. (When we were in some of the churches during one of their services, I felt disrespectful taking photos, so I am pretty sure I didn’t take any while we were in Notre Dame). It was really neat (What am I, 80 years old?) being in the Sistine Chapel, especially so close to when the last Pope was chosen. I really appreciated Grammy Bobbie taking the time to share about her beliefs before we left on our trip; it definitely made our time at the Vatican more meaningful to me.

Vatican City Wall

We saw so much more than I expected to see, but by the end, we were pretty tired. By this point, it seemed obvious that all three kids had caught head colds. Our feet hurt, and we were ready to be in bed. Kirt, Julie, Lara, and Brian tried finding a place to eat dinner afterwards, and from the looks of their google searching, they wanted a sit-down place. I was so tired that I would have rather skipped dinner all together simply because it would take time away from my sleeping. It was already after 8, and I knew Gabe could not do a sit-down restaurant, so I made the decision that I would take Gabe home, we’d grab something quick on our way home, and go to bed. Mom decided to come with me, as did Rachel and Michael. We said our farewells to Lara and Greg, and then headed out.

We grabbed food from a sandwich shop. They asked if we wanted it to go or to stay, I said to go; Mom said to stay. I said, “Okay to stay, as long as it is quick.” They heated up the sandwiches we requested from their display case, and then we sat down to eat them. One of the workers came right over and said we couldn’t eat at the restaurant because we didn’t pay to stay. In preparing for our trip, I’d watched lots of videos where the narrators informed me that in Italy, they will charge you more if you sit versus eating on the go or at the bar, so I haven’t been too surprised to see the different prices for staying versus getting food to go, but we were a bit confused since we had told them we wanted to stay. We thought it was bizarre that they wouldn’t let us stay, even though nobody else was around. I wasn’t bothered; it’s what I wanted anyway. The kids ate their sandwiches on the walk home, and my mom and I ate ours when we made it back to the apartment. 

The dryer was STILL going (I’d started it over 3 hours before we made it back), and the clothes were still very, very damp. Thankfully, Gabe was satisfied with the amount of drying and happily put his newly washed pajamas on and went to bed. I started the dryer again, crossing my fingers that it would be dry by morning. I took a look around and decided that other than charging my phone and other things, the rest of the things could wait for morning. I brushed my teeth, gave up on my pajamas being dry, and went to bed without them. Brian and his parents returned just as I was closing my eyes to sleep. 

(Brian taking over again)

After debating on a place to eat for 10ish minutes, we decided to just walk and find something. I had been craving a little more protein in my life and wanted to find somewhere that did chicken Parmesan. Dad said it is a “real Italian dish,” but apparently no one in the touristy areas does it. We ended up at a restaurant that had lasagna instead, and it was incredible. Probably one of the best lasagna’s I’ve ever had, even though Devri’s lasagna still beats it (sorry Italy). We had a great time just talking about life, kids, and memories. Everyone agreed that Devri was amazing for planning this incredible trip and having everything fit together so well, even though it was tiring. 

The best part, however, was when I mentioned Apply pay to my dad and he said “I’ve never used that before.” Lara immediately got him set up (though I believe he was already setup to use it with his credit card, just had never actually done it), and he was able to use it to pay the bill for the meal with a tap on his phone. Lara said congratulations and the server caught on and we all ended up cheering very loudly for dad using his Apple pay for the first time. The server then proceeded to shake everyones’ hands as well to say congratulations for the huge moment. It was fantastic and we were laughing so hard. Even so, I was exhausted and was ready to go to sleep about 30 minutes before we even finished eating. 

We finally finished and started heading back. I needed to stop at an ATM, and after remembering that I didn’t have any physical cards on me (since I almost exclusively use Google pay, yay for me), Lara and Greg graciously volunteered to pull money out of an ATM and I just Venmo’d them back. (The funny thing is that this paragraph will be hard to understand for those of a certain age unless they’ve used Apple/Google pay and Venmo, while the next generation will probably say “what the heck are those things” as well. But at least we can all agree that it’s easier to understand than Devri’s made up “architectural words” above.) I got home just as Devri was falling asleep and quickly followed her to bed.

And SCENE for day 17 out of 39.