The Colosseum...

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Bonjourno, Today is our last day in Roma and we decided to go to the colosseum and the palantino. We bought tickets for the hop on hop off bus and headed off to the colosseum. This morning winter seems to have arrived in Roma, the sky is grey and heavy clouds which every now and then rain quite heavy.

It's great being on the bus as it takes you around all the main sites of Roma and some others that we wouldn't have got to, like the wall around the city and many of the beautiful fountains. We decided to sit inside the bus and half way through the trip we were pleased we had as it rained quite heavily.

On arriving at the colosseum we decided to line up and buy the double ticket for the colosseum and the palantino at the palantino as the line was much smaller, even then it took 45 minutes to get through and in that time we had to buy some ponchos to keep us dry. Everywhere you are there are people trying to sell you things like handbags, ponchos, purses, stress balls, toys and glass ornaments. Outside of the palantino is no different and today I was very pleased as we were able to buy our ponchos and stay dry. Quite a fashion statement...

Finally we got in we decided to hire an audio of the roman forum and the palantino, the area is fascinating with many of the ruins still in great shape including some of the paintings that are on the walls. I must admit after about 2 hrs I was all ruined out and was eager to get to the colosseum.

It rained again on our way to the colosseum and so we dressed in our very stylish ponchos looking like real tourists.. The weather has become much cooler over the last couple of days, if it continues like this I might have to buy myself a warm coat or wear all my clothes at the same time. Funny how it suddenly turned from us getting sunburnt to being cold and damp literally overnight.

The colosseum is an amazing feat of building engineering and expertise, it would have to be at least 10 stories high, it has stood for centuries and has survived earthquakes and wars. It was fascinating looking at the underfloor knowing that that was where the animals were kept and the gladiators waited to go up and fight. To have unearthed bones of the animals that died there, where they carved up the meat and gave it away to the poor people. It truly was amazing we really enjoyed wandering around looking at the museum and then going out to the stadium. Wow..

We came out just in time to see our bus drive past and so we ran to catch it, I arrived at the bus just as they were about to pull out.. Col and I went up on to the top level of the bus and finished off the rest of the trip around Roma. It was lovely to see St Peters basilica again and some other places that we didn't get to see today.

By the time we arrived back at the hotel Colin and I were frozen to the bone it took me a couple of hours to warm up again. Off to tea, time to pack the bag, one final walk around this beautiful yet hectic city and off to bed, tomorrow we say ciao..

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