Bread and Circus

The saying ‘bread and circus’ stems from Roman times and means if the masses are fed and entertained, they will be kept happy.

We had both a bread tour and a circus tour scheduled for this day of the trip.

On our way to the Colosseum (our circus tour), we first stopped by the Roseto Communale which our new best friend John from the golf cart drinking tour told us about. Here we took pics of roses and pics of each other and pics of each other taking pics of each other.

From there, it was off the to the Colosseum where we had another awesome tour guide who gave us tons of info about the Colosseum. Unfortunately, I forget her name and 90% of what she told us. I do remember the Colosseum was built to host entertainment for the masses, that entry was free for everyone however seating was according to class, that the gladiators had pot bellies for protection, and that executions were scheduled over lunch time to keep the crowds from leaving.

Now I have to tell you the jet lag was causing a bit of a problem for both Heather and me. We weren’t sleeping well at night and had trouble staying awake in the day. At lunch the previous day, I had to put my head down at the table in the restaurant. Meagan had to wake me up when it was time to leave. Before the Colosseum, Heather snoozed against David’s shoulder. After the tour, I took a nap on some steps somewhere. You’ll notice Dave in the background trying to alleviate the swelling in his bad leg. Meagan has multiple pics of him doing this in various locations. We do our kids proud.

After napping, we caught a couple more churches on our way over to our food tour.

Now on to the bread part of our day – a food tour with Dario, who was a very busy Italian. (In addition to being a very knowledgable food tour guide, he has a daughter, a music career, and does dubbing for American actors.)

Dario first brought us for “a very nice” wine with cheese and salumi.

We then walked over to the Jewish Ghetto where we had whatever the course is called between meat & cheese and pizza. This consisted of fried artichokes, fried cod, and fried peppers stuffed with cheese and anchovies. Some did not care for the anchovies. I thought all were excellent.

It turns out artichokes are a big thing in Rome, and not just fried. The steamed version is excellent as well. Here’s a pretty display in front of the restaurant in the Jewish Ghetto.

From there it was off to pizza (we had potato), pasta (carbonara), and gelato (multiple, but one with a “secondary” flavor of blue cheese). I figure you don’t need more pictures of those. Well, maybe the gelato.

Again, Dario and Dave hit it off, and they discussed extending the tour and going for coffee after gelato. Until Dave mentioned decaf at which point Dario dropped him like a hot potato.

The gelato place was outside the Pantheon, so I feel the need to share a pic of the Pantheon at night.

At this point, we were thoroughly exhausted. Over the three days of the trip, we had walked over 21 miles. We were looking forward to relaxing on a train and on a boat along the coast of Amalfi the next day.