After a continental breakfast in our hotel we set off on foot for the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill, where Romulus supposedly established Rome and was the centre and meeting place for the senate and all kinds of other good stuff. Walking down side streets in Rome has its disadvantages. In Nice we had to avoid dog crap on the sidewalks. Here it’s human crap and toilet paper. Very nice.

As we walked past a park with the remains of a 250 room palace that Nero built for himself in an area cleared by the great fire of 64 AD (the one through which he fiddled, we assume), a well dressed man in a nice car stopped and asked us for directions to the train station. We leaned in the window and tried to help him. He said he was from Naples, his wife was from Quebec and he was a representative for Armani. I could see a scam coming on. He showed us a binder with Armani pictures in it and then said he would give Anita an Armani purse and me an Armani leather jacket for helping him. He pulled them out of an Armani bag. The purse was beautiful and the jacket was on a hanger in a cover and looked brand new too. He handed them out the car window to us. Then he said he didn’t want to use his credit card even though he was a rich man so could we just give him a little money to get gas. We asked him how much. He said just 50 or 60 euros. We handed back the jacket and purse and walked away while he continued to talk. I’m sure the jacket and purse were cheap knockoffs worth much less than 50 euros and he had a trunk full of them that he drove around Rome every day. He had a pretty good pitch though and looked good.

At the Colosseum, we were approached by about half a dozen different people trying to sell us group tours for 28 euros each so we could avoid the lineup to get our own tickets. These people are licensed and more or less on the level. The lineup to get into the Colosseum is probably a couple of hundred metres long all day and must take hours. However we had read in Lonely Planet that one ticket covers the Palatine Hill and the Colosseum and you can buy them at either place so its best to buy at the Palatine Hill to avoid the line. So we walked about 200 metres over to the Palatine Hill entrance and got tickets for 12 euros each in about 5 minutes. It’s so crazy that they wouldn’t try to spread people out a bit rather than let those who know better get in instantly and those who don’t wait for hours without telling them anything. Italy seems to be different that way with a lot of organizational things.

We saw lots of interesting old Roman ruins. The Palatine Hill actually takes more time to see than the Colosseum but both are very impressive. The Colosseum could fit from 40,000 to 70,000 people at a time and they had free spectacles that lasted for days. The biggest by the emperor Trajan lasted 120 days and had 11,000 animals in it plus gladiators and public executions at lunchtime. Nice. We never realized that there was a complex system of trap doors, winches and elevators in the floor so cages of animals, gladiators and scenery could be raised up and appear. Quite a place. It’s a little strange walking down the same corridors that the ancient Romans did and seeing how the lions, Christians and gladiators were brought into the colosseum for entertainment of the masses. Bread and circuses.

We left here at 9:30 and were glad to get back (without getting killed in the traffic -find a Roman and cross downstream with him) a little after 3. It’s blistering hot and sunny every day. About 5 or 6 hours a day of touring is all we can take. Then we’re glad to get back to our air conditioned room, a cold shower and a beer and glass of wine.

Tomorrow we’re off to the Vatican by city bus. It’s only about 4k but that’s too far to walk in this heat.