Buona sera. Good evening all. What a wonderful day we have had today! Usual early morning start with breakfast at 7:15am. We had to re-organise our day because our night tour of the colosseum was cancelled. I was so disappointed about this as this was something I was really looking forward to. Apparently there had been some rain last week and it caused a collapse in one of the tunnels, which meant the night tour were cancelled as this is one of the areas that we were going to. Never mind, we kept positive and hoped we could get another tour on the day. We arrive at the colosseum around 8am and we first had a walk around the entire perimeter. Wow it is just amazing. Once again I don't remember too much about being here in 1986 but today we were blown away by how big it is. Once we had done a full lap we looked for a ticket office. There was a young Canadian girl selling tour tickets so we bought them and waited for our tour guide, Max. There were only 6 others on our tour so it was actually really nice. Max told us all about the history of the colosseum and a little bit about what a 'normal' day consisted of. The colosseum was only used for around 10 days per year for fighting. A typical day was; morning - hunters and animals, followed by prisoners fighting. After lunch they finished up with gladiators fighting each other. Some days they could go through 1000 animals and up to 1000 men! Really barbaric in today's world.
We had some free time to wander around an take in the enormity of the colosseum before or next tour of the Palatine Hill which is the centermost of the Seven Hills of Rome and is one of the most ancient parts of the city. After leaving the colosseum and before going to the Palatine we took a detour and visited a little known Basilica San Clemente. Until the middle of the 19th century it was thought that the present Basilica of San Clemente was that mentioned in 392 AD by St Jerome who wrote that ‘a church in Rome preserves the memory of St Clement to this day.’ However, in 1857 excavations under the present basilica, uncovered not only the original, fourth-century basilica directly underneath, but also at an even lower level, the remains of a first-century building! It really was a beautiful church and I lit a candle here in memory of Ian.
From San Clemente we moved to The palatine which stands 40 metres above the Forum Romanum, looking down upon it on one side, and upon the Circus Maximus on the other. The Circus Maximus is an ancient Roman chariot racing stadium and mass entertainment venue located in the centre of Rome. It was the first and largest stadium in ancient Rome and its later Empire. It measured 621 m (2,037 ft) in length and 118 m (387 ft) in width, and could accommodate about 300,000 spectators! That's 3 times more than the MCG! After the Circus Maximus we headed to Palitine Hill.
History has shown artefacts that claim Palatine hill to be from 1000BC! So much history. From here we walked down to The Roman Forum which is a rectangular forum (plaza) surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the centre of the city of Rome. These building go back to 7th century BC. The size of the columns are just amazing. It was interesting in to hear that while thousands of years ago everything was covered in marble, over the centuries, the marble was removed and most of it ended up at the Vatican! Recycling at its best hundreds of years ago!!
From the forum we slowly started to head back to the hotel. We passed the Capitol and the VITTORIANO and decided to go and have a look. Well, actually I decided and Gary just went along! Lots more steps!!! It was now 3pm and we had been walking since 8am. Anyway, it was worth it. From the outside you could see nearly all of Rome. We got some fantastic panorama views from here (thanks for the camera Emma). We entered back into the Capitol and walked through the museum. The first statue we saw was the beautiful sculpture monument of the winged victory with horses. It was beautiful. We walked up more stairs to the next level. Here you are confronted with a massive sculpture of a horse and many soldiers. I can't remover the name of the soldier. I will need to wait until I get the photos developed to read the name! However, this structure alone is well worth a visit but the entire museum contains an Italian Military history and it's free entry.
It was terrible humid by now. It had been around 28 degrees all day and now a gentle rain was falling. So what do you do when it starts to rain at 4pm in Rome? Why you head for the nearest bar for happy hour of course!! So we sat in the Piazza Barbarini and watched the Romans go by while sipping on Après Spritzer's and Peroni beer. Aaaah what a wonderful way to pass the time. From here we reluctantly headed back to our Hotel. Only one more day in Rome :( Tomorrow is my final presentation so we won't get much sight seeing in tomorrow.
