Our second day in Rome consisted of a visit to the ancient ruins.
We started at the Colosseum:
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| Arch of Constantine |
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| Inside the Colosseum |
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| View from inside looking out |
Below you will see the tunnels that were once covered by the wooden arena floor. These tunnels were used to bring in performers and gladiators, as well as to house animals before battles.
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| Arch of Constantine with the Colosseum to the right |
Just as we were leaving the Colosseum it started to drizzle. We decided to go for lunch at a restaurant nearby. By the time we finished lunch and were ready to go back outside, it started to rain even harder. We didn't have jackets or umbrellas so we bought ponchos from some street vendors. We didn't have much of a choice.
Although the rain made us uncomfortable, there were a few positives. There were absolutely no lines to get into Palatine Hill and the Forum, when earlier that day we could have waited for at least an hour. There were also very few people walking around. Standing alone in the ruins were people lived 2,000 years ago felt somewhat surreal.
As we were nearing the end of our walk around Palatine Hill, we walked over to a lookout point which opened up to the Roman Forum. The view was absolutely breathtaking. We could see all of the Forum and the Colosseum in the background. Just as we took the stairs down to the Forum and reached the Arch of Titus, the clouds started to open up and the rain stopped.
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| Looking onto the Roman Forum from Palatine Hill |
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| Roman Forum with the Colosseum in the background |
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| My beautiful poncho |
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| Roman Forum |
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| Arch of Titus |
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| Arch of Septimius Severus |
Next we walked north of the Forum and stumbled upon Il Vittoriano, a ginormous monument designed in 1885 in honor of Vittorio Emanuel II, the first King of unified Italy. It's definitely not an ancient ruin, but interesting none the less. Some people refer to this as an eye sore, but I tend to like it's symmetry. However, ruins and medieval structures were removed to build this excessively large monument, which is unfortunate.
Finally, we began to walk back in the direction of the Colosseum to get to the metro station. The sun was hitting the Colosseum at the perfect angle, which gave off a warm glow. Not to mention, the sky was a brilliant shade of blue. We couldn't help ourselves, we had to stop for a few more pictures.
Stay tuned, more pictures of our trip to come....
