pour améliorer: It's Colossal!

As a result of our less-than-ideal experience at the Vatican, the tour company decided to console us with a free tour to see the Colosseum! Yay!

We spent the morning catching up on bits and pieces like banking. This is my Rome office.

We decided to go wandering to see what we could see in the way of brunch options, hoping for some kind of antipasti smorgasboard.First on the menu, arancini!

And various fried or grilled vegetables. We were searching for a nice little park to eat our spoils in, but eventually settled on a little bench on a footpath because we were getting really hungry.

The view was still pretty good.

Then it came time for our 2:15pm collection from our hotel, as promised by the tour company. We waited. and waited. By 2:45 no-one had shown up, so we called them. Apparently no-one was collecting us after all, and the bus was due to leave at 3pm. Given that this was our last full day in Rome and we were due to leave for a different tour the following morning, we HAD to get on that Colosseum tour.

So we ran. About fifteen million blocks.

And we arrived, puffing and red-faced with about 5 minutes to spare. No time to yell at them, we just hopped straight on the bus. And so began our Colosseum tour!

Here you can see almost a cross section of how the outer walls were built.

This wasn't quite what we expected to see gladiators doing when we arrived...

The iPhone. An essential tool for any modern gladiator!

We got a great glimpse of the top of the Vittorio Emanuele II monument.

And of course the famous arches of the Colosseum.

When Rome fell and Constantine took over power, the Colosseum was closed, because it was considered unacceptably brutal and inhumane. With the building out of operation, these corridors became a place for squatters and homeless people to get shelter, and their fires have burned away all of the beautiful frescoes that would have adorned the ceiling.

All of the marble originally used to decorate every single surface of the Colosseum (inside and out) was considered free game, so the place became a quarry, almost. It’s suggested that some of the marble decorating the Vatican may have been sourced from the Colosseum.

They have reconstructed the floor on the right there, to give you an idea of what it would have been like.

You can almost see the thought bubble from Tom here, imagining he’s a gladiator.

Thumbs up, they live.

After visiting the Colosseum we got a little gelato break in a café with a magnificent view.

And then we visited the Roman Forum buildings.

The police had closed the street leading to the Colosseum for a protest, so we got a lovely unobstructed view. Apparently there’s a protest about something almost every day in Rome.

This is a temple in the process of being restored.

Awww, the giant stones in the original main street of Rome make a heart shape.

Here is Tom pretending he’s broadcasting the evening Roman news.

Julius Caesar again. They really love him in Rome.

Here is Tom demonstrating the surprising depth of the pavers in the cobblestone streets. None of the shallow 40mm pavers for the Romans!

We were impressed with this couple’s spot.

There is a myth that Rome was founded by Romulus, one of two orphan boys, Romulus and Remus, who were raised by a wolf. Romulus later killed Remus. It’s a pretty tragic story, really. Here is one of the many statues depicting the two boys suckling with the wolf.

We left the tour at this square, where the museum and the city law buildings are, and were very pleased to see that a concert was in the works!

We had the pleasure of hearing their sound checks.

The rooves of the surrounding buildings were lined with statues. This one looked like it was dancing.

So did this one. Classic move.

We decided to settle in and do a bit of people watching, waiting for the concert to begin in earnest. How funny are these little two-wheel contraptions!

Tom made an excursion to go and find us some nibblies. Not bad, huh?

And then we got to watch the sunset.

Aaaah the good life.

This dog reminded us of our baby Allie. How funny is its lying style?

As night darkened, the concert began. And we sat there grinning at each other, unable to believe that we were sitting in a Roman courtyard surrounded by ancient statues, listening to a free concert.

It became clear after a while that the concert was run by a radio show, so there was a LOT of talking. Since our Italian is pretty basic, this was quite uninteresting for us, so we eventually decided to move on.