Let me start by saying that gelato is not ice cream.
Not even close.
Good gelato is a divine semi-frozen concoction that delights the senses, stimulates the brain, improves the mood, satisfies hunger, cures leprosy, holds down inflation, and makes you not care that you should have should have changed the oil in your car 8,000 miles ago.
Now, this does not apply to any gelato; in fact Rome is overflowing with gelaterias that insidiously pass off pathetic imitations to oblivious tourists. My favorite is pistachio from Old Bridge Gelateria just across from the Vatican, shown above. Skip the Sistine Chapel, just suck on a fantastic semi-frozen bit of pistachio flavored heaven instead. The lines are shorter and it won’t hurt your neck so much.
We visited the Coliseum and Roman forum today. Seeing the massive ruins of both and imagining what they were like when they were new and covered in beautifully endless marble and elegant statues is difficult for the mind to grasp. To think that they did these incredible structures with only simple tools and back breaking labor is too much. I can only imagine what it would have been like for a peasant from the country side to wander into Rome and see these God-scaled buildings. It would have been the equivalent of watching a spaceship land.
We are still exhausted and walking is more effort than it should be. We came back to the hostel early to sleep.
