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The colosseum. Smaller than I thought it would be and the interior has obviously been
quite radically changed since Roman times - arches blocked in and marks on walls where staircases used to run up.
Below: Me with Julius Ceasar. (p.s. Still haven't found out what S.P.Q.R means...
it was everywhere)
In the area around the Colosseum there are just so many ruins and monuments to be seen.
We spent a day just walking around and looking at everything and it was the best part of the stay.
(I'm afraid I don't know what this is called...)
Below: this is a monument to Emmanuel II (I believe). There were girls jumping in and
out of the fountains and when a police man told them to move they just carried on taking pictures and totally ignored him
- we noticed this happened as well when a policeman was trying to get cars to pull over and only after 7 had gone past did
one finally obey. Poor old Italian police!
The Trevi Fountain was heaving with tourists but was one of the most beautiful fountain/monument/statue
things I have ever seen. I throw the obligatory penny in to ensure my return to Rome :)
We also visited the Vatican (yawwwwwn) and saw the Sistine Chapel (people too pink, too muscly,
and he has a habit of painting people with smaller big toes than the second... ikk). I much preferred the Vatican Museum
and all the sculptures and paintings. The Muesum was considered by a lot of other people as "the way to the Sistine
CHapel" but I thought it was just as amazing - floors, walls and ceilings all exquisitely painted (things that looked like
carvings that turned out to be paintings etc).
We did a day trip to Pompeii by going on the train to Naples and then buying a "circumvesuviana"
local train. It was horribly hot and I felt sick and nearly fainted as there was no shade (well, none of the ruins have
rooves!) It was a fabulous thing to see and I have chosen to forget the actual experience of seeing it first-hand
Above: The Temple of Jupiter with Mt.Vesuvius in the background.
Below: Pompeii is nowhere near as ruined as I imagined it to be (plus it's ENORMOUS!)
Now, I many have been silly in thinking there would be dead bodies lying everywhere but to
find this (the Garden of Fugitives) we had to crawl under a fence (a barrier... with a no entry sign? never... )
It would also have been good to see some of the artefacts in the Naples museum but we only had one day.
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