Today we were up early again, ready to head to the Colosseum. It is about a 20min walk from the hotel, so it was quite pleasant to walk there.
Before we set out, we had to have our usual coffee and something to eat, and were recognized as being South African by the owner of the coffee shop. He had a strong South African accent, but turns out he is from Rome and went to SA for 7 years, and picked up the accent while he was there.
The Colosseum is really impressive, and when you look at the building and the architecture that went into that a few thousand years ago, it really is quite extraordinary. We walked around and listened to the history on one of the headsets that you can hire. It sounds quite brutal with all the gladiator fights and the “hunts” that took place, but you have to wonder if you lived in those times would you have attended the games, as it was a normal thing to do?
After the Colosseum we headed to Palantine Hill where you could see the ruins of some of the Roman buildings, overlook the Circo Massimo where all the chariot races took place and a myriad of other sites that are around there. It is quite impressive how advanced the society was at that time and also how all of that could then disappear.
With all this walking, we had to stop and have a pizza.
At one of the ruin sites, we noticed a lot of cats around, just lying in amongst the ruins or sunning themselves on the top. It turned out there was a cat sanctuary there, and the cats enjoy the life in the ruins.
We headed back to the hotel for a while and then went out again to walk the area and find some new Piazza’s to look at, there are always some new ones around that you haven’t seen with some kind of a pyramid, statue or fountain to keep you entertained.
Before we set out, we had to have our usual coffee and something to eat, and were recognized as being South African by the owner of the coffee shop. He had a strong South African accent, but turns out he is from Rome and went to SA for 7 years, and picked up the accent while he was there.
The Colosseum is really impressive, and when you look at the building and the architecture that went into that a few thousand years ago, it really is quite extraordinary. We walked around and listened to the history on one of the headsets that you can hire. It sounds quite brutal with all the gladiator fights and the “hunts” that took place, but you have to wonder if you lived in those times would you have attended the games, as it was a normal thing to do?
After the Colosseum we headed to Palantine Hill where you could see the ruins of some of the Roman buildings, overlook the Circo Massimo where all the chariot races took place and a myriad of other sites that are around there. It is quite impressive how advanced the society was at that time and also how all of that could then disappear.
With all this walking, we had to stop and have a pizza.
At one of the ruin sites, we noticed a lot of cats around, just lying in amongst the ruins or sunning themselves on the top. It turned out there was a cat sanctuary there, and the cats enjoy the life in the ruins.
We headed back to the hotel for a while and then went out again to walk the area and find some new Piazza’s to look at, there are always some new ones around that you haven’t seen with some kind of a pyramid, statue or fountain to keep you entertained.
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