Holiday in Rome

We left Salisbury at bright and early 5.30am on Sunday 21st February and made our way to Heathrow Airport. Caught the British Airways flight at 9.30am to Rome, was pleasant enough flight, but felt like a budget airline. We landed in Rome, cleared customs and immigration and found the driver sent to pick us up from the airport.

The Green Apartments were really nice, but not apparent, we wouldn't have found them if the driver hadn't dropped us at the door! Andrea was really nice, he gave us a map and highlighted all the good eating, drinking, gelati, sightseeing spots. Once settled in we then set off to see a bit of the neighbourhood. The Colosseum was only 10

minutes walk, totally awesome sight! Also saw the Arco di Costantino which is right outside the Colosseum together with some nearby ruins. Everywhere you look in Rome there are ruins being excavated! We then set off looking for a supermarket and somewhere to get some dinner - pasta or pizza maybe?? We also stopped past Fassi Ice Creams which is famous for its gelati and ice cream.

Monday 22nd Feb was our first full day in Rome, so we wanted to take in the sights. We walked past the Colosseum and the Palatine (visiting them tomorrow) and headed towards the Trevi Fountain. Also passed along the way a number of ruins, the Foro di Augusto (semi circular in shape) and the Foro Traiano (tall spire). We stopped and viewed the Museo Centrale de Risorgimento (Alter of the Fatherland - a grand marble, classical temple honouring Italy's first King and First World War solders) - a very impressive construction of white marble, very romanistic with lots of statues and writing (a great deal in Latin).

We kept going up a main street called Via del Corso, which is well renowned for its shopping (and we did do a bit of shopping), and finally found the Trevi Fountain, a very awesome sight! Made of white marble and full of intricate statues, carvings and water features. Needless to say we stayed and had lunch looking at the fountain.

We then set off to find the Spanish Steps, which we found were only 10 minutes walk away. At the foot of the steps was a small fountain in the shape of a boat. Unfortunately the steps were largely covered by scaffolding as it seemed to be undergoing some restoration, so we really didn't get any good photos. By this time it was getting late and we grabbed the metro train back to the apartment. We picked up some pizza and pasta for dinner and had a night in as everyone was

pretty stuffed.

Tuesday 22nd February we had tickets to the Colosseum. We had an amazing time. We had an initial look around the outer section of the building before we went on our guided tour. The history of the Colosseum is impressive, in addition to an area for the games, it was housing, some of it was demolished and used to construction material, was used as a prison, and a marketplace before it was left to ruin.

The tour we went on took us around the entire structure, we visited the sections under the area floor, the re-constructed floor, the public seating areas, and up to the top of the structure. It was incredible to thing what had occurred in the Colosseum over the ages, standing in the seating area and looking over the structure was awe inspiring.

We spend quite a few hours in the Colosseum, then returned to the apartment for a brief rest before heading out in search of the Pantheon.