rome 2

what a lovely city! and reasonably tranquil today as it is sunday and despite the tourists the place was pretty quiet too with not much traffic. lots of stunning young girls riding the train into the centre, for the shops or the boys? :) we walked into the huge square near the station,piazza del popolo and then across the tiber to the vatican city spotting a swiss guard in his colourful uniform on the way. st peter's square is vast as I had imagined and the pillars of the colonade are incredibly tall. there was a moving queue of people snaking round the square (misnomer as it is circular!) waiting to go inside st peter's itself but we passed.

lots of photos tho' before moving on down via della conciliazione where we had a coffee break. huge churches with amazing facades punctuated both sides of the road, indeed all the roads that we walked! as we turned to cross the tiber once more there was a rush of running street vendors carrying their wares with them. the slower one at the back was brought down in a rugby tackle practically at our feet by a very tall, muscular carabineri. a plain clothes colleague gathered up the fallen straw baskets and the last we saw of them all was in a car speeding off down the road alongside the tiber. when we were nearly there we stopped for lunch. salads and drinks in a snug little terrace down an alleyway. the pantheon has incredible height inside and there is no obvious way the dome is held up. more photos, bien sur. the buildings around the pantheon are plain and faded unlike the ones we had been walking past all morning. we started the trek towards the colosseum.

the first building you come to is the altar of rome, an immense (i'm running out of adjectives for size!) and very white and covered in flying horses, waving arms and lots of steps. The wide boulevard that leads ot the colosseum was pedestrianised today so it was eerily quiet for a big city but delightful. I bought myself a pink parasol to keep off the sun as the slight and very welcome breeze was threatening to lift off and blow away my sunhat.

No rugby tackle from behind thankfully! we were approached by a young lad trying to flog us a tour of three sites and warning us that it was a three hour wait for entry into the said colosseum. queue? lou never queues willingly so entry wasn't on the cards. we walked all round the outside and that was spectacular enough. plus I could see hordes of people on every level inside so preferred the peeks we got from various arches around the outer wall. then it was back up the via del fori imperiali and on up the via del corso to the station with a detour to see the trevi fountain. standing room only at the fountain as it is in a small square which is oddly out of step with the size of the fountain. people were sitting on every bit of ledge or step and those standing were doing so three people deep. lou shouldered his way to a photo spot and then we left! i was not leaving until I had had a proper roman ice cream so we...i kept my eyes pealed for a gelateria and found one. a restful sit down and delicious ice cream and then onwards to the train. with great good luck the free shuttle bus for the campsite arrived just we came out of the station at the other end so we were soon back and relaxing. arrivederci roma! (written evening of 9th september)