A 20 minute walk from the apartment had us standing outside Amphitheatrum Flavium now commonly known as the Colosseum.
Surprisingly, at least to us, it is not one of the seven wonders of the ancient world but it is a sight that takes your breath away and becomes more wonderous as you walk around inside the structure and try and visualise not only how it would have looked in it's heyday (80AD) but try and understand how it would have been built using the tools etc. available at that time
It was then onto the Palatine Hill, handily placed next door to the Colosseum and which overlooks Roman Forum, the city centre in ancient times.
Numerous ruins from ancient times were to be seen and marvelled at
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| A ruin (no, not me) on the Palatine Hill |
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| Part of the Roman Forum as seen from Palatine Hill |
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Having left the Forum we then moved on to Monumento Nazionale A Vittorio Emanuele II which is a monument to honour Victor Emmanuele the first king of unified Italy and is built in white marble
As we went looking for and finding the Piazza del Campidoglio we stumbled across Santa Maria in Aracoeli a 6th century church famous for its ornate gilded ceiling - being slightly exhausted at this stage we sat in the church and was awe struck by the beauty and detail all around us.
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| The Cordonata leading up to the piazza with statues of Castor and Pollux |
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Tired but not beaten we trudged back to the apartment to relax before finding a restaurant for a late evening meal. Arrivederci
