The howling growling ghosts of the Colosseum

Yesterday we had a great day. We awoke at various times in the morning but were all up and ready to roll by about 6!! We made it through to lunch time but then had to come home for a nap.

We hopped on the hop on/hop off bus quite early and went around a couple of times. Rome is so beautiful. It seems more relaxed than Paris and less sprawling. Mind you, we've only seen a bit of it. Hugo said, as we wound through the streets, "I could live here." Rachel said she could too. It really is beautiful.

Our first real stop was the Colosseum, which we didn't get to until 5pm. As expected, there were lots of Roman soldiers around ready to pose for a pic for a million euro. We learned out lesson on the Great Wall - no pics with smoking Caesars for us. We joined the very long line, but someone called out that for an extra 4 euro we could completely skip the line and get audio guides. We'd planned to do that anyway, so jump we did.

The Colosseum is an awe-inspiring tribute to cruelty. If there were ghosts anywhere, they'd be down there in those tiny concrete and stone cells. The building itself is incredible, but I just can't imagine the mindset of the 67000 people who crammed into the Colosseum to watch all the killing. Scary.

It's a vast structure, with layers and layers of rock and concrete. The logistics are very impressive - lifts and plumbing. It's just really really scary.

There are some fun books and souvenirs. Can you guess which kid really wants some Gladiator armor? My favorites are the books which have photos of places as they are now, and plastic layers that go over the top showing how they looked in their prime.

The tour bus was great - we saw lots of things. Huge buildings which we can't wait to explore. The Vatican looks incredible. There seems to be loads of ancient temples, beautiful churches, fountains, piazzas and other buildings everywhere. Rachel and I had an interesting conversation about how obelisks seem to be common to so many cultures.

We had more pizza for lunch. I am a little nervous about how my dairy issues are going to fare. I haven't been able to find any SOY MILK yet!!! I think I'll stick to bruschetta instead of pizza! The one we had for lunch yesterday wasn't nearly as impressive as the first night. Getting picky now.

Everyone is now awake.

"Hugo Mahoney Nightingale. I will not stand for this." I just heard Rachel's comment on Hugo's Nutella on bread breakfast:) It's 7:15 am and we're going to go to the Roman Forum by opening time at 8:30. Quick metro trip 1 euro each and then we'll get on the Archeobus and see a new set of sites, with a stop at the catacombs, where thousands of Christians were buried centuries ago, when they weren't allowed to be buried inside the city walls. The mixture of ancient worship buildings/Christian building is fascinating. There's even an old temple right outside St Peter's Basillica.

Veni vidi vici!