We woke up on Colosseum day and had a (free) breakfast of sugary sweet croissants with medicine tasting cordial and bounced down the street. When the sugar rush crashed we rushed to get some decent food. Pizza!
It was another steaming hot day! We walked up to the Colosseum and were approached by another tour pimp. The guy was very nice and I grilled him, asking heaps of questions. I didn’t want to get ripped off again. The tour was actually affordable and I also got a discount for the entry ticket to the colosseum because I am an EU citizen under 26 (handy!).
We met our tour guide who had a thick Italian accent and a wicked sense of humor. He asked everyone where they were from, to the English he said “fish and chips” and to the Americans he would say “McDonalds”. He had lots of funny stories. His favourite topic was virgins and when ever he spoke about the virgins from ancient Rome he would grab a pretty girl and lead her around and the group.
Here is one of the girls attacking a friendly gladiator:
Our guide asked us if any of us on the tour had been to the Colosseum before, when everyone said no he answered with “mistake” and walked off expecting us to follow. (he still held one of his ‘virgin’s hand’) It was v. funny.
He told us how the seating in the colosseum was organised. The politicians, nobles and rich families sat closer to the arena, with the lower classes sitting high up and further away from the area. At the very top, the women stood. All the women got was a platform to stand on.
The entry into the Colosseum for the Ancient Romans was free, with free food and wine all day. There was a shade cover manned by professional sailors who would roll out and up roll the sail cloth used for shade.
The white blocks are the original stone.
Most of the original stone was stolen by a Pope hundreds of years ago so he could use it in the Vatican!
Instead of the flat arena I was expecting was a series of tunnels and corridors.
Wild animals were brought through these corridors and through trapdoors in the arena floor. The animals, lions, tigers, bulls etc were killed as part of the show and then eaten!
Our tour then left for the Roman Forum,
but we were more interested in hanging around the Colosseum.
We met another Julia
who has brought a plate with her! How thoughtful.
Then we had our photo taken by a very enthusiastic Japanese fellow
After spending the day walking around in the crazy heat we were exhausted! We walked back to our hostel with the usual bread and cheese on the way back.
Our last day we went to check out the Pantheon. It was closed, for a wedding. So we had to have gelato instead.
And then!
We saw the Pantheon. Which is basically a round church.
So we walked and found a bridge!
Then we spotted an Angel who liked to play croquet!
That afternoon we caught a train to Civitavecchia, an hour away from Rome. From there we to catch a ferry to Barcelona.
The boat was huge! 
It can hold up to 2000 passengers, there were only 150 people on board! We had booked airplane style seats. But decided to pay to upgrade to a cabin. I guilt tripped the guy at the desk to giving us a discount!
We watched the pilot jump out of the Ferry onto his pilot boat.
I got really sea sick and found standing in the really strong wind at the back of the boat to be brilliant fun. It made my hair look like I was a mad woman.
We spent the rest of the day sitting in the lounge area chatting to an Australian couple we met who were in their 50’s doing a similar trip to ours.
We arrived in Barcelona after 20 hours on the boat.
Up Next Barcelona.