Day eleven and we forced ourselves out of bed to make the most of our time in Rome. By the time we left the building after breakfast and getting some things from the supermarket it was a bit late - the crowds had swarmed to the Colosseum.

Thankfully, our trusty Rome Pass allowed us to skip the massive queue and we went straight in to the 'C'. I can see why the Italians haven't adopted the Aussie abbreviations for their stadiums - it doesn't quite work as well as the 'G'.

We decided to grab a couple of audio headsets to get the most out of the visit. The colosseum is a cool place especially if sporting stadiums rock your boat. Thinking about some of the 'games' held here over the years and what they would have been like gives the spine a chill.

Beginning to sweat up a storm in the Rome heat we made our way to the Palatine Hill and Roman Forum. On our way we spotted an Italian celebrity being filmed. He was pulling some crazy expressions in a blatant attempt to b******ize some of Andrew's finest work. I think I even spotted them referring to a 'what's on next' bag - it's a world phenomenon.

The Palatine Hill is still undergoing some serious excavations. There have been a number of claimed discoveries in recent times of the she-wolf's grotto and Nero's rotunda. These are all very long stories so I'm not going to go into any detail - let's just say we were here for a long time. It's a pretty amazing place but not for everyone and it is a real slog in the heat. (Sal felt the need to remind me of this on more then one occasion.)

We continued on to the 2nd century architecture of the Pantheon. The hole at the top of the massive dome feels like an eye in the sky. Maybe that was the intention of the designer or maybe he just wanted to save money on light bulbs.

Next we visited Il Gelato di San Crispino. Sallie had done some research and promised the best gelato in the world. It was something special but best in the world might be pushing it.

(Sal here - it was 'bloody beautiful' to say it in Aussie slang. Caramel meringue was unbelievable - chunks of caramel and chunks of meringue yum yum!)

By this stage it was about 5.00pm so we wandered some streets and checked out a few shops before heading back to freshen up for dinner.

After getting ourselves ready we caught the bus to Piazza Navona. I spent a good twenty minutes studying some of artists pen portraits. The techniques were all very similar but some of them were quite impressive.

The pizzas of Da Baffetto had been recommended to us so we decided to check it out. Most of Rome had come to the same decision as well and we had to wait a bit for a table. A funny old Italian man (maybe Mr Baffetto) decided he would sit us together with two other couples. This led to quite an entertaining dinner.

Ross you may find this amusing. One of the people on our table was of Irish decent living in New York. He explained the reason for all the Irish pubs in New York and the unusual number of Zebras.

Other then this the man's wife was Argentinian and the other couple were Swiss and German. The conversations were quite cultural to say the least.

After I engulfed another fantastic calzone and Sal digested her pizza we said Ciao to our dinner compatriots and set off into the night.

Somehow between the piazza, a mime artist and a fountain, we had our first real domestic of the trip! The crazy traffic in Rome is even more dangerous when walking angry at night. We got back to the room in silence and to top it off the air-con was broken so the room was bloody hot. Neither of us would get much sleep.

Oh Rome - our love/hate relationship rears it's ugly head again!

On to Florence tomorrow.