Rome wasn't built in a day...

"Veni, vidi, vici" - "I came, I saw, I conquered"

Julius Ceaser - 100-44BC

Photo with a modern day Roman soldier

The history in the place is absolutely amazing, dating back to before Christ.

Not a lot to write about today other than we had an amazing tour of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.

Again, started our day of as usual with breakfast at the hotel before departing for the Colosseum which is situated about 5-10km away from our hotel.

Our tour guide Marina.  The flower is so we could find her.

We got to our meeting point where we met our tour guide and wired ourselves up with the receivers and ear pieces.  The tour was 3 hours long and just like our tour guide the day before, this one also knew her stuff and clearly loves what she does.

Meriana and Jazz about to enter the Colosseum

We learnt so much about this place that it's impossible to fit it into a blog.  So my advise to you would be to make your own trip here to Rome (hehehe)

Photos are on Facebook and I have also included a couple of YouTube links so that you can see what Ancient Rome used to look like in comparison to the photos of the ruins.

Rome Reborn and The Roman Forum

Like all other trips, food is involved somewhere along the way, but I have to tell you that shops were quite few and far between during the tour (we did have food in the bags), but about half way through the tour we had about a 20 min stop before entering the Roman Forum.  There was a small shop and a library as well as a water fountain and some toilets.  Devika and Ian went off to get some drinks and also bought some pringles for when Jazz woke up (both she and Meriana were asleep in their prams at this stage).  Upon waking Jazzmyn was given her pringles to which she shared with Meriana.  It must of been a long time because even Ang was stealing food from the kids hehehe.  It was so entertaining because, everything we seemed to do on this trip was eat, but when in Rome!!!

just finished lunch

At the conclusion of the tour, of course we went to look for a place to have lunch, found a little quiet shop thingy about a millions miles away (seemed like it after walking around the Colosseum and Roman Forum for hours), had lunch and headed to our hotel for a rest.

The taxi ride to the hotel was certainly an experience.  The taxi driver at one stage thought he was a tram and drove along the trams tracks, then he thought he was a rally driver zipping in and out of the narrow streets of Rome.

 The streets of Rome are exactly how they are on movies, narrow streets with vespers and smart cars lining each side of the road.  The footpaths are covered with little pizzarias and ristorante with tables outside (some covered with those checkered red and white table cloths like in the movies) and covering those are large umbrellas.  Al fresco dining in its true form.  Placed among the eating places are souvenir shops with every little replica of and public figure and historical buildings you can think of.  From Pope John Paul II to the Colosseum, from Gladiators to the Basilica San Pietro and rosary beads of all size and shape from hear to Mexico, even glow in the dark ones.

Like the past few nights we dined al fresco on one of those small narrow streets, but we had a change from the normal pizza and pasta which we've been having the past 2 nights.  They were replaced with Roast veal, burgers and risotto.

After I finished last nights blog, we could hear some action outside our window.  Ang opened the window and we saw a mass of people walking along the street with candles burning and singing.  She managed to capture a bit of it on video.  When our cleaners came today, Ang played them the movie and asked what was happening.  The cleaners spoke very little English so rang down to reception and got them to explain what took place last night.  In the end she found out that it was the Stations of the Cross.  If you google you can find out more info about it.

but for now, it's buona notte from Rome, Italy and tonight I will leave you with this small clip of the   Stations of the Cross pilgrimage.

Sorry the video is sideways, I didn't have the energy to correct it.  I just wanted to share the experience of what we heard outside our window. (I may have corrected it in Youtube, but not too sure so will keep the apology here in case hehehe)