Day 12 - The Roman Marathon

When In Rome.... Now I know what that statement means..... "Do everything you possibly can whilst tolerating the extreme number of walking tour groups who can be identified by some worldly person strutting around with a headset whilst holding some inanimate object aloft on a stick...such groups are more often than not the cause of slow moving pedestrian traffic or completely blocked footpaths as they travel 10 abreast across the walkway while viewing the world through a lense." This coupled with limited or no situational awareness or tolerance for others wishing pop a photograph or two leads to a wonderful experience to be cherished. Apart from that... all the "old stuff" we saw was rather impressive!

The Collesseo was something to marvel, as was the queue to get in. We opted to quickly trott back to our nearby hotel, ring the call centre to preorder our tickets, and trott back to the entrance with the small prebooked reservations queue. 

What an incredible piece of history. The audio tour was very informative - breathtaking to know that it is estimated that this arena could hold up to 70,000 revellers!!

Clyde was a little frightened to hear about the gore - the lion, tiger and hippo fights ( don't worry about the poor gladiators or slaves Clyde!) 

Fascinating it learn of the intricacies of what went on below the main floor... Getting Gladiators to the main area, the fighting animals into there too, and what happened with all the "left overs" afterwards.

After that tummy churning tale we went exploring the ruins next door and looking for a fountain...The Trevi Fountain....not before some authentic Itialian fare for lunch...first Big Mac of the trip. On our World Maccas Challenge this one would score 2 out of 5 stars.

Again, a lot of flag waving, footpath blocking antics and we made it. A good thing about the flag wavers... you know that you are on the right track. An increase of flag wavers indicates that you are near something of interest. Perfect navigation aid in Rome.

We made a quick stop by Ryan's favourite building / monument... Vittorio Emanuele. As the rule books state - when someone important dies you have to build something for them.... This guy must have been important!

Fountain, found...

Next stop the Spanish Steps. we thought it might be a long way to go to Spain, but lucky for us there were some Spanish ones here! We will be sure to check out the steps in Spain when we are there in just over a week, and get back to you with a compete step comparison.

It was a good place for a quick sit down... And play where's Wally... Not hard to miss them.

We finally made it back to the hotel, for a rest and then it was dinner....and then it was GELLATO!

Last night was chocolate, tonight was banana. 5 stars!!!