Whatsamattayou – Barton European Tour Stage 3

Stage 3 is well underway. We arrived in Rome yesterday and had a few hours of daylight to hit some of the sights. We dumped the bike box into storage at the airport along with my smelly transition bag containing all of my race gear. The shoes and the rest of the junk was pretty rank from the swampy race even though we rinsed it good before leaving the countryside. If the storage guys want to steal anything out of there, they will pass out the minute they pull back the zipper. I may have to burn some of it when I get home.

Anyhow, back to Rome. First stop was the coliseum. I have seen plenty of pictures and TV documentaries about the coliseum, but NONE of them do it justice. The only word that Aaron and I could come up with was “overwhelming” when seeing it in person. It is truly, truly amazing.

Too many pictures? Just let me know.







One end	The other
Old and New

Other cool stuff we saw while visiting is some of the amazing architecture and pottery. Keep in mind this stuff is First Century. We’re talking double-digit A.D (around 2000 years old). Very cool that most of it you could lay your hands on. Kind of neat to be able to put your fingers on letters that were carved so long ago.


	Sure beats a fluorescent bulb


	Some of the animals used in “shows”

We also had a great opportunity to have some pizza in the shadow of the coliseum.

Continuing on, we walked all over Rome, making our way toward the train station trying to find a cheap hotel. This was NOT an easy task. Several of the inexpensive one’s were completely full. The one’s that were available wanted ~$400 per night. WAY beyond our budget. According to one hotel clerk, this is the high-season in Rome. We kept hunting and finally settled into a nice place that was reasonable. Along the way though, we took a bunch more pics. We even had an opportunity for some gelato.