First day in Rome. Slept in after Matt’s early night due to the virus I kindly shared with him. Breakfast was provided by the hotel, and with Matt feeling a little better, we were off to our first Roman attraction. We walked to the bus terminal and began to queue for a bus tour of the city. Some hagglers came up to me and sold me on another bus. At least this one didn’t have any queue and it still was a reputable company, plus the bus had air-conditioning. On the agenda was the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain to begin with. Well can’t comment on the Steps much – they were just a couple of flights of stairs with heaps of people snapping photos. We climbed up to the top and there I found a painter who’s water paintings I just couldn’t resist. So I bought two! Better to buy more than one anyway because you then get a discount. Well that was my understanding and thats what I’m sticking with! After the Spanish Steps we walked to the Trevi Fountain. What a sight! People everywhere trying to get the best position for a photo throwing coins into the water and indians trying to sell toys that blew bubbles. I’ll have to agree that the fountain is pretty inspiring. The statues are so much bigger than I ever imagined.

On the bus again, our next stop was the Colosseum. We bought some lunch and sat on the grass overlooking the arena. To see the stadium in its original condition, 2,000 years old, was hard to comprehend. It seated over 50,000 people then and when you compare this to the MCG now there really isn’t much difference in the design. Of course except for the technological advances. We bought tickets for a tour of the Colosseum – only cost 8 Euro more and it included a tour of the Roman Forum to follow. At least we skipped the queue waiting to buy tickets – it was nearly an hour wait. We are getting so sick of queueing everywhere!! At last we were inside, and to see the old structure and hear how life really was on the inside of the walls was unbelievable. We heard all about the Gladiators, the way in which they were trained to fight, and all about the gruesome entertainment.

We joined another tour following the Colosseum of the Roman Forum. This lasted for just over an hour and was conducted thru the ruins in the vicinity of the stadium. We saw where the chariots used to race and the living conditions of the Roman people. It was astounding to see how these buildings were established without all the modern equipment that we now take for granted. Back then everything was done under people and horse power.

It was a big day and we finally got back to the hotel after 7 pm. Dinner was very late, about 9.30pm at a little restaurant over the road from the hotel.