Descending from the Capitoline Hill, we walked along the Via dei Fori Imperiali (built by Mussolini in the 1930s) with views across the Roman Forum to the Palatine Hill. The first picture shows the Tempio di Saturno (Temple of Saturn, founded in 497 BC) with the Palatine in the background. At the end of the street the Colosseum rose up to meet us:
Aye, it's big! Begun around 70 AD by Emperor Vespasian, it was completed by his son Titus ten years later. The Colosseum had tiered seating, 80 exits that enabled the 50,000+ capacity crowd to leave the stadium in minutes, and a vast sailcloth roof which could be pulled into place by sailors of the Imperial fleet to shade spectators.
Inside we took the lift (aye, there was a lift!) to the upper tiers which allowed us to view the maze of tunnels which would have originally lain under the stage. It's thought that clever plumbing even allowed the Romans to flood the stage area so that mock sea battles could be presented.
As a result of fires, earthquakes and the vagaries of time the entire south side of the structure had collapsed by 1320. A stop was put to the quarrying of stone from the site in 1744, when Pope Benedict XIV consecrated the Colosseum in memory of the Christians who had supposedly been martyred there.
The Arch of Constantine is almost overshadowed by its neighbour, the mighty Colosseum. Built to commemorate Constantine's victory over Maxentius, his imperial rival, at the Battle of Milvian in 312 AD, it is Rome's largest and best-preserved triumphal arch.
We bought a drink from one of the vendors trading their wares outside the Colosseum and sat for a while just taking it all in. Then, it was off back down the Via dei Fori Imperiali, on a long walk back to the hotel via the Pantheon.
Sunday 13th May
Having taken a taxi to the Galleria Borghese to see some of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's most beautiful statues, as well as masterpieces by Caravaggio, Raphael, Canova, and so on, we were told that we needed to make a reservation, and they were fully booked for the rest of the week. Oh well! All the other museums we'd visited hadn't required a reservation, so that caught us out. We took the opportunity to take the sightseeing down a gear, though, as the previous five days had been pretty action-packed.
We walked to the other side of the Villa Borghese park and had a nice restful lunch in the Casa del Cinema cafe. From there, it was an easy stroll down Via Vittorio Veneto (made famous in the 1950s and 60s during Rome's La Dolce Vita heyday), stopping at the Hard Rock Cafe half way down the hill for the obligatory T-shirt! Not so easy-going was the road leading over two of Rome's seven hills, the Monte Quirinale and the Monte Viminale, in order to get to our next stop, Santa Maria Maggiore.
We sat outside a bar with a view across to the church and had a couple of drinks, which allowed me to cool down again. Inside, those surfaces not covered with ancient marble taken from the Palatine Hill were adorned with intricate mosaics. The one below depicting the Coronation of the Virgin is from behind the high altar, completed by Jacopo Torriti in 1295.
The lavish decoration in one of the side chapels was accentuated by a beam of sunlight as we sat watching (below). We also came across Bernini's tomb, a very simple inscription in the pavement to the right of the altar, where he was laid to rest in 1680.
Afterwards, we got the number 64 bus back to the hotel, and after freshening up we hit Il Papalino for some pizza and beer!
Monday 14th May
The last couple of days we took it nice and easy. On Monday Beth did her thing in a church across the road from the hotel, while I took the number 40 bus back to Piazza Venezia. From there, I had a good walk round the Forum, which I couldn't get into with the wheelchair on our last visit.
I climbed the steps to the top of the Palatine Hill, which had gorgeous views over what was once the heart of the Roman Empire. The picture below shows the Colosseum in the distance with the Arco di Tito in the foreground. The latter was built in 81 AD by Emperor Domitian to honour Titus, his brother and predecessor.
The other end of the Forum is bounded by the Arco di Settimio Severo, a huge arch raised in 203 AD to mark the tenth year of the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus. The Temple of Saturn is to the left, and the tower at the top of the Capitoline Hill is part of the Palazzo Senatorio, Rome's town hall.
I subsequently caught the number 62 bus back to the hotel, where I met Beth. We had a lovely lunch (penne pasta in a smoked salmon sauce) sitting outside a cafe with a view of St. Peter's at the end of the street. Afterwards, we got our postcards organised and sent from the Vatican Post Office. The evening was spent relaxing under trees lit by fairy lights in the hotel's terrace garden. Steak and chianti, anyone?!
Tuesday 15th May
Having had such a fine visit to St. Peter's the previous week, and with it being right on our doorstep, we decided to spend our last full day having another look round. We enjoyed swanning around inside the basilica, took the lift to the roof terrace and chilled out with an ice cream (again!), I climbed to the top of the dome to take in the views over Rome, then we exited via the crypt.
Beth then decided to go back to Santa Maria in Traspontina (the church across from the hotel) for a while, so I took a walk along the River Tiber to the Trastevere district.
Santa Maria in Trastevere dominates the main piazza there, and is famous for its mosaics; the scene of Christ and the Virgin enthroned shown above is from the upper apse and dates from around 1140.
Off I went on my travels again, across the river to Campo de' Fiori, or the Field of Flowers (below).
The Campo did actually have a lot of stalls selling flowers immediately behind where I was standing when I took the photo. The statue is of Giordano Bruno, a Sixteenth Century humanist and scholar who was burned at the stake on this spot in 1600 for the crime of heresy. The square matches his secular outlook; Campo de' Fiori is unusual among Roman piazzas in having no church.
At night, Beth and I met up up at the hotel again for our tea.
Wednesday 16th May
One last breakfast in La Veranda of the frescoes (the hotel's dining room) before getting a taxi to Termini station for the express train back out to the airport. We enjoyed hitting the duty free shops before our 12:20pm flight to Gatwick. After a smooth journey, we finally arrived back in Aberdeen at 6:20pm, collected the car, and drove off into the sunset.
Finito!