After our busy day yesterday we both slept like a log and the garbage truck was even later this morning – probably a Sunday concession.
We headed up to breakfast about 8.00am just as the church bells around the city rang out. After a leisurely breakfast we headed back to our room to collect our bits and start off on another of Adrienne’s walking tours.
It was fa
irly quiet – Romans are obviously not early starters and we headed to our first destination for the day – a tour of the Colosseum. As we walked along, we began to notice a lot of police cars around and the road heading down to the Colosseum was closed to traffic. Then we noticed a whole lot of cyclists who all seemed to be getting ready for some sort of race so we decided this must be the reason for the police and road closure. But then as we crossed the road, a whole lot of police bikes started heading our direction, followed by a car with loudspeakers and then a mass of cyclists – we thought we must have stumbled across the Tour de Roma !
It turned out a bit more casual than that – the front cyclists looked professional enough but there was a mass of “gate crashers” following further on including kids, families – even a guy in a white suit and hat who managed to fall off his bike !
That excitement over we headed on but there was more to come. As we got near the Colosseum, there were masses of what seemed like Italian war veterans of some sort – all complete with their hats full of plumage. Again, we don’t know what it was but later we heard a band playing a number of military style fanfares so undoubtedly it was the anniversary of something.
By now we had reached the masses milling around to get into the Colosseum. Adrienne had researched well and had arranged a Roma Pass before we left home (we picked these up the other day from a tourist information centre) which basically meant we jumped the extensive queues to get in.
Once inside we followed an audio tour she had downloaded onto our phones which gave us a commentary on what we were seeing.
After spending some time here, we then left and headed to Palatine Hill, the area nearby where the Emperors and Nobles lived and built their palaces – such as Augustus & Livia. One end of Palatine Hill and the palaces overlooks the Circus Maximus where the chariot races were held – its pretty much just an open field now.
From Palatine Hill we doubled back to get another view of the Colosseum then headed to the Roman Forum. Here we had another audio tour on our phones and followed the commentary around – to the site where Julius Caesar was cremated, Caligula’s palace and the home where he housed the vestal virgins.
After the Forum, we visited the Vittorio Emmanuele Monument which was built to honour Italy’s first king. It also houses Italy’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Eternal Flame. Nearby is also the building which has the balcony from which Mussolini gave many of his speeches to the crowds gathered in the Piazza below.
It had been quite hot so we decided to head back to the hotel to cool off for a while and comeback to our tour later. When we headed back, our first stop was the Theatre of Marcellus, an ancient open air theatre which was built in the last years of the Roman Republic. The top part of the theatre now contains expensive apartments.
We then walked through the Jewish Quarter and a number of pleasant back alleys and squares. Our last stop for the day was to be the Church of the Gesu – the founding church of the Jesuits however being Sunday it was not due to be open until 4pm and we had not had any lunch. We headed toward the Pantheon where we figured we found find something and found nice Panini’s at a little hole in the wall shop and ate them sitting on the low wall overlooking the Pantheon and listening to a busker doing some very good covers of Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Sting, amongst others, on his guitar.
After our lunch, we headed for the Piazza Navona as Adrienne had decided it was time to see some souvenir shopping. We wandered there for a while and looked at a couple of Gelato shops, none of which looked as nice as the one we had visited the other day. As it wasn’t too far away, we decided after our previous taste there was just no competition worthy and headed back there again.
With our taste buds satisfied, it was back to the Church of the Gesu. It actually has probably the most extraordinary painting on the ceiling after the Sistine Chapel. It is called the Triumph of the Holy Name of Jesus and is painted by an artist called Baciccia and looking at it, it has this almost three dimensional look about it.
With our feet giving out, we again headed back to our Hotel. We had decided for tonight to checkout the rooftop bar for a drink before heading off to find dinner. We ordered a drink and some nibbles and with the quantity of food that arrived decided we didn’t need to go any further for dinner – and besides, our feet could do with a break. And with another early start tomorrow for our trip to Pompei, an early night would do us good.