Italia Day 21 - Roma

My day started bright & early as I wanted to go for a jog & check out the city before the crowds hit. I started running down the main street near the hotel & before I knew it was in the ancient quarter. I turned my head to the left at one intersection & there it was - The Colosseum.

I didn't get much jogging done because every 5 metres was another ancient ruin to look at & photograph. This is part of the Roman Forum, not that I knew it at the time.

The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (or Wedding Cake), with (as I found out later that day), the goddess Nike gracing its roof.

Some church steps I liked the look of.

Eventually I reached the river I had been aiming for - the Tevere or Tiber.

At this point it flows quite rapidly.

I was surprised in Rome (as I had been in Paris), how deserted the river was. Not much attention gets paid to it for some reason.

Later that day, at an hour far more suitable to my friend S, we headed back to the Colosseum to have a look inside. Here is the obligatory tourist shot.

Just some of the crowds lining up to get in. We ended up paying for a tour (with SPQR - I recommend them) and I'm glad cos we got to skip the lines, plus found out lots of interesting history along the way.

Here you can see where they have recreated part of the floor that once covered the arena. What you can see today is the basement area - where all the animals & gladiators & whatnot came up from.

Dark clouds rolling in.

There were many more photos, but I won't keep boring you with just one monument.

After a quick lunch we started the next part of the tour - in the Roman Forum & Palantine. We had a new guide called Luke & he was awesome. English, with a very dry sarcastic humour. He was the highlight of Rome for me. Moving on, this is part of the Roman forum with the Senate in the background.

I have completely forgotten the name of this temple, but it had a very interesting history, which I have also forgotten. What I do remember is that it's currently being excavated - in the middle of this temple is a church that was obviously added to the temple at some stage. I loved that about Rome - everything is layer upon layer upon layer.

Close up of the Senate with the rain clouds which were about to open up on us.

Long view of the forum with Luke in the foreground.

I think this is part of the Temple of Concord. We saw so many temples, they are all starting to blend into one.

The Temple of Vesta. The history of the Vestal Virgins is very interesting, I recommend you have a read.

The Vestal garden & baths - with the Emperors balcony in the background. Nice view for some.

After the tour we walked around the Palantine Hill for ages. This is Mussolini's palace - inside is a museum with really ancient treasures - even by Roman standards. I think some were dated 35,000 BC or something silly.

These were some unnamed ruins.

One final view from the top of Palantine Hill towards the wedding cake.

Me getting rained on in front of the Senate - thought I should get a photo in front of the home of our modern legal system, being a legal researcher & all.

The edge of the Teatro Marcello, just near the Forum.

We certainly packed a lot into the day. That evening we headed back across town to a vegetarian restaurant I wanted to try. On the way we passed the Spanish Steps. This is the Trinita dei Monti that sits at the top of the steps.

Just writing about this has been exhausting. And this was only Day 1!