26th August

Today we woke up in the crappy hotel and went down for breakfast at 7.30am.

Guess what, the breakfast was fantastic!!! Actually Iím lying, it was two bread rolls in a basket, 4 biscotte, 2 little tubs of jam and 2 nutella. No juice, no cereal, no fruit, no yoghurt, Trudy only got a cup of tea because the lady decided to ask us.

GREAT, but I think we probably won't worry about it too much if we don't go there for breakfast.

We left at about 8.10am, for the Colosseum, and got there pretty quickly.

The line wasn't very long, cause it was early, which was good, as it was so long when we left.

The Colosseum is massive, it really was awesome to see. The levels, and the amount of engineering to go into it was amazing, especially under where the floor used to be.

We walked around for about an hour, as well as reading about the history of it.

Right next to it is the Arc of Constantine, which is also really big, a little bit smaller than the Arc de Triomph. If it wasn't directly behind the Colosseum, heaps more attention would be spent on it, cause it really is detailed, and really well preserved.

We had a joint ticket that let us in to the Colosseum, the Palantino, and the Foro Romano, so we went to Palantino first. It was like the ruins of an ancient, ancient city, all the walls were falling down, it is actually the ruins of the city, kinda like where the city started...The Palantine Hills, actually Rome started on the Capitoline Hill, just nearby.

So we had a good time looking around the ruins, it was startling how large the place would have been when all the buildings were new, and lavish, totally massive.

They have a arena there, not like the Colloseum, smaller, but that was interesting, and Augustus' house, and there was also a museum that showed all the uncovered relics, pots, statues etc. It was actually built ontop of an old wall, so that was in there aswell.

After we ate lunch in the gardens of Palatine, we went to the forum, just next door.

It was kinda the same, ruins of the old buildings, but they were extremely large, and more the type needed in the town, not just houses.

There is a couple of basillicas, two arches, Arch of Titus, and Septimus Severus, really big pillars to mark the entrance of something, roads, all these old ruins from like 3000 years ago, it was great.

These btw are all right close to each other, Colosseum, Foro, and Palatino, which was good because we didn't have to walk far.

After resting lots, we walked to Piazza Venezia, which was right infront of Vittoriale. It was a huge white building, a monument that marked the victory in a war of someone over someone. We didn't actually know that much, so we read about it in the Rome book we have, and the history was quite interesting, even though it was only built about 100 years ago. IF u want to know more do your own research.

So it was completely white, excpet the exception of the wrought iron gates, and the copper/ and brass statues on the top of the pillars.

By then I was dying for some shade, as it truly was a million degrees. WE walked into the building, (you also weren't allowed to sit on the staris, or anywhere outside...defaming the monument or something) so we kept going.

We climbed all these stairs, and reached the terrace, which was really high up, and got a great view of the Ancient city. It was a great view of all the things we saw that day, which was nice.

There is also a museum, or two in the building so we looked around a bit, there was a huge horse sculpture.

BUT we were pretty much dying of heat stroke (me especially) so we took a big rest outside on the stairs, (around the side so no-one could see us)

Trudy solved the 3x3, and we planned to see some stuff after a minute.

IT WAS HOT!!!!

We eventually ended up walking back to the Colosseum, tried to buy 1 nectarine from the fruit store, and it was 10euro a kilo, so it was 2.80euros for one nectarine, we just left it, and bought some souvenirs instead.

We continued down via San Giovanni in Laterano to find this little church called St. Clementine, but when we arrived it wasn't open as it only opened late afternoon or something.

We went to a bakery and got the best thing i've ever eaten in my life....so I exaggerate a bit, but it was so good.

It had bacon, cheese, salami, some sauce and pepper in this roll things...ahhhh it was good!!

Eventually we reached the end of the road, where the final planned destination of the day was, the San Giovanni in Laterano cathedral.

Just outside it in the Piazza, there is an enormous obelisk, apparently the tallest in all of europe, it is massive and has all the hierogliphs still totally visible.

The csthedral was both Trudy and my favourite, and most impressive church we've seen.

Amazing!!! All the frescos, the gold roof, the huge column pillars, the little prayer rooms, the corridors, it was phenomenal!

Really high celings, just really nice to see.

We decided the heat had enough of us, so we gave it a rest by going home. WE got slushies on the way, and they were cold...yes.

We saw one last church on the way home, San Maria Maggiore, but we didn't go inside, thought we've seen enough and the Sistine chapel is tomorrow so we'll wait. We did actually get bothered by a couple beggars this morning when we passed it then so that was another reason.

At the hotel we watched a movie, and then went to buy some kebabs for dinner...again, and got some fruit before we went back to the hotel.

Vatican city tomorrow. Woohoo!

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