From Rome, the long Colosseum Walk

Today we must have walked 10k. We left at about 8.30am and got back about 4.30pm after walking the central Rome sights of (in Italian from the map):
Colosseo
Palatino
Circo Massimo
Foro Tralano
Fontana Trevi
And more

The ruins were amazing. Some 2,500 years old. It was good to get there early as wer were some of the first there and avoided queues and having too many people around.

Overall the street scenes are quite grungy. A big contrast to London. But I loved the atmosphere, the colours and textures and how old and worn everything is.
The streets are mostly cobbled with cut blue rock… the sort of cobbling that the rich in Auckland spend a fortune on for their expensive driveways… and yet it was everywhere here. It looked great where it was really worn.

It was incredibly hot and by the time we got back we were all pretty stuffed. Mostly from the endless walking + the heat + lack of food for most of the team who are trying to loose weight.

On the way back we did a bit of browsing in the street stalls and found a stall selling really nice fruit which tasted fantastic.

As I write this some of the team are downstairs practicing their patterns. After nearly an hour sitting here sorting photos and writing this I’ve finally cooled down to a comfortable level again.

Today I wore my only light T shirt and it definitely can’t be worn before a wash. What to wear tomorrow – now that’s a challenge.

Carl is the expert on the history and the sights and was great to have around today… especially as I know so little about ancient Roman history.

He’s planning on taking us to see the Vatican tomorrow. It’s miles away so might be a small challenge to get there.

Now to find an internet café to post this stuff up for you to see. We occasionally get a tiny teaser of access to an unsecured wireless network but it comes and goes (mostly it goes actually).

Cheers
Doug