Thursday, April 7, 2011

Destinaton: Rome - Part 3

Day 4
Date: 02 February 2011

I took the Hop On Hop Off Bus again today. I sat at the lower deck as the wind on the upper deck when the bus was moving was freezing the hell out of my ears.


Since I only had a 2 day ticket from the bus, I decided to drop by the ever famous Colloseum. Ticket was €12. This is including of entrance to the Colloseum, Palatino and Roma Forum. The queue for the tickets was very short. I hear that during summer, the queue will be about 1-2hour long!


First thing that came into my mind was, it wasn't that big. Maybe it's the same size as a normal stadium? I don't know. I guess I had high hopes for it to be like 3 times bigger than the usual stadium.


Nevertheless, it's quite an amazing site. I've never seen anything so old before. But I bet it looked good before it became a ruin. How come the movie Jumper made the collosuem looked so different? Movie tricks I bet.


I was on Level 1 (sorry had to name each levels as we are allowed to go up to Level 3) when I took the picture above. Nothing much, just circled around the level. It's just lots of bricks and moss everywhere.


Then I saw the stairs. I read it's where all the spectators walk up to their seats. The history said that, the higher their seats are, the lower of their status are. The VIP always have their seats at Level 1. Or I might be wrong. I heard it from another tour guide that was walking in front of me.


I had to climb this huge-ass stairs up to Level 2. They have an elevator but it's only for disabled people. Luckily it's not as high up as Arc De Triomphe in Paris. It was really a big climb - maybe 5 stories up?


The view from the balcony on Level 2. I suspect Arc De Triomphe had the design copied from this arch. Haha! Gotcha!


And this is part of the Palatino or is it Roma Forum. I can't differentiate both.


This is the view I wanted to capture. Looks creepy huh? LOL I wonder what happens down there.


The tour in the Colloseum took about 1.5hours. Crazy right!?! Anyway, after that I walked to the Palatino thinking 'Hrm, what will I find here?'.


Such a nice walk with trees all around and with a huge pavement to walk on.



I love the little flowers growing in between the grass!



More ruins....


I walked another few minutes and finally I reached the Forums. Not much were left though. Probably around 30%. 




OMG, more ruins.





It was the end of The Forums. I had to walk all the way back to the Colloseum's entrance to catch the bus.


The next stop was Vatican City. This is St Peter's Basilica. It's huge!! I dropped by one of the cafe for lunch. I ordered 2 salads and tea. It was €20+. So expensive! I guess the cafe was targetting tourists! Anyway, I didn't care much when I paid because I was starving. The portion was too much though. Should've gotten only 1 salad.


I was sitting at the side by one of the columns for people watching and of course, at the same time admiring the building's structure. It seems like it might be made of marble. Everything seems to be made of marble here.



Cobblestones.

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