Day three took my wife and I into what I consider the coolest part of Rome, the Collesium, Arch de Constantine, and the Roman Forum. If you are a history buff, a fan of the HBO series Rome, enjoy archaeological sites, anthropology, or any combination of the above, this is THE stop to hit in the Rome tour. A quick trip on the metro to the Collesia stop (really, what other stop would you hop off on? Certainly not Spagna) and we popped out within site of the Great Collesieum of Rome. Yes, it's a tourist trap on some level, filled with peddlers, Romans posing as Gladiators for photo opportunities for varying amounts of Euros, and the occasional pickpocket/fence duo hanging about with the other riffraff, but once past the security gates the sense of history and marvel is immense. From the Emperor's Box, to the seat of the Vestial Virgins and even the cheap seats, the views are stunning, inside and out. Imagine walking into the Rose Bowl, and having panormic views of the surrounding hillsides through gaps in the crowd. Amazing. Even though the site has been ravages by the sands of time, the structure, views and engineering remain as impressive as the day the structure was first visualized.
After spending a good bit of time, we headed off for a little lunch, and returned to the Southwest side of the Collesieum to spend a bit more time admiring the structure itself, and then turned our attention to the massive Arch de Constantine. Commissoned by the Emperor Constantine to comemorate his victory over rivals, it is dwarfed when viewed from a distance by the Collesieum, but when viewed up close, it too is massive in it's own right. Standing almost 60' high, it is adorned with marble reliefs taken from the spoils of sacking other buildings, differentiating it from the other triumphal arches constructed in Roman conquests. 
From here, we continued on up the hill into the Roman Forum, where the greatest collection of history we had seen to point was located. We saw the ruins of Nero's palace, the remains of The Great Basillica of Constantine, the original bronze door to the Temple of Romulus, and even stood on the Senate floor. We even saw the remains of Julius Caesar's private residence and stood in the remains of the Temple of the Julioi, within arms length of the very spot of Julius Caesar's funeral pyre (yes, I grabbed a handful of dirt, much to Jacqui's chagrin).
As exhausted as we were, Jac and I decided to soldier on and make the 150' vertical climb up the stairs to the Museo Capitoline for even more sculpture and Roman monuments to their own greatness. In the plaza between the two halves of the museum is the famous statue of Marcus Aurelius on horseback.
Michelangelo's original work now sits indoors in the 'right' museum as exposure to the elements placed too great a strain on the work; what we see now outside overlooking Piazza Venezia and Via D'ara Coeli is a replica created in the 20th century.
We finally jumped into a taxiand headed back to our hotel; after giving the first taxi a well deserved middle finger, we hopped in a cab driven by a rather stylish young Italian guy who wanted to talk about the similarities of New York and Rome, while also listening to Puffy on his MP3 player. After a quick shower, we headed off to our best meal yet.
Ristorante La Pentolaccia was a foodie's dream come true. The restaurant itself was reminiscent of a elegant dining hall, with white linen table cloths and all the accoutrements one would expect in such a place. The servers mercifully spoke enough French and English so that they wouldn't have to turn their nose up at my shoddy Italian! In terms of the meal itself, we each had first courses of pasta, and then shared a second course of roasted lamb with potato medallions. Overall an incredible meal!
On day four, our final day in Rome, we took a taxi from our hotel to Museo Bhorghese, named for Cardinal Bhorghese who was an avid collector of ancient sculpture, Bernini and Carvaggio, and other Renaissance works. Foremost in his collection are the sculptures of Apollo and Daphne, Bernini's David, as well as The Rape of Persephone. There are many other works of non-biblical, aka 'heathen' sculpture, which is very atypical for a religious collector. One of the best features of this collection however, is the brevity with which it is displayed. In all the museums prior, and on some level, there is almost too much to take in during a short visit; here, all you need to view the entire collection is about 90 minutes. While the museum tour structure is such that one may spend 120 minutes maximum inside the gallery, you only need about half of that to see the sculpture level, and about 30 min in the picture gallery.
After the Bhorghese Museum, we returned to Piazza Republica, took the metro to Termini Station, and said 'Aribaderci' to Rome as we boarded a train to La Spezzia, and began our trek to Cinque Terra!
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