Today we decided to do some ancient works – the Colosseum and my personal favourite, the Colossus of Constantine. I’ve thought he was pretty fab since doing Roman Art & Architecture at uni, and couldn’t wait to see him.
So, off to the C0losseum (thanks go to Vespasian and Titus!). Of course, it was fantastic. It looks just like all the pics you’ve ever seen, and is pretty full of tourists. We’ve had a pretty easy run on queues this trip – everyone’s warned us about how long you have to wait if you don’t book ahead or pay extra for the guided tour – but the longest queue was the Uffezi in Florence at one hour. Everywhere else has been 10 mins at the most! And at least the queue at the big C was a moving queue!
We started upstairs and wandered along the upper galleries, marvelling at the sheer amount of stairs! We could see down into the inner workings below where the arena would have been, as they’ve left most of it off, except for the orchestra area. It’s amazingly small actually! Gladiator makes it seem huuuuuge, and while it’s big, it’s not as big as the MCG (R’s comparison…)
There was a fabulous Flavius exhibition upstairs as well, near the bookshop, which centred on Vespasian and Titus and their families. Some cool statues left of them!
Once we’d finshed gawking, we tried to follow the (admittedly dodgy) tourist map to the Capitoline Museum to see Mr Constantine himself (also known as The Big Guy). Not quite as big as I’d imagined, but as you can see from the pictures, still quite sizeable!
As we were in the museum, we had a quick wander, coming across the Romulus & Remus figure, the space where Medusa should have been (she was on loan to another museum somewhere — probably safe as we were already feeling pretty rocky in the joints, even without looking ar her!) and came across a Marcus Aurelius room. I imagined Constantine thought himself a bit of Mr Big, but Marcus has a colossus or two, plus a huge bronze statue of himself on a horse!
Once we’d finished at the Capitoline, we stopped for lunch and a well-earned rest. A salad was in order for me, as the GF pickings were rare, plus I was feeling the need for something light! Then we sauntered next door for gelati – or two, for some!
Once we had had lunch, we went our separate ways – T took a taxi back to the hotel, R walked me up to Via Nazionale before going off to find the Catacombs (unfortuntely closed early on Thursdays) and I meandered past the shops After walking aalllll the way up via Nazionale, down to the Termini, across via Cavour, I thought I was going to have to admit defeat and go home empty handed. But to my delight, I came across a small shop emblazoned with “Made in Italy Shoes!.
I wandered in, thinking about maybe a nice pair of low heels to show off at work, and was talked into (not very difficult!) trying a pair of knee-high boots.. They laced up at the back as well as sporting a zip, so my mega-calves weren’t as much of an issue as usual. The man who ran the shop assured me that “a lot of Australian girls who come in to my shop buy these boots for the same reason!” I’m not quite sure why, but obviously we’re wide-calf gals! This guy was a crack-up, calling me “baby” every second word. “Give me your foot, baby!” etc etc…
After trying on a couple of pairs of shoes, I settled on the boots. Black Italian leather. Yum!
We said goodbye to T tonight, who is off to Zurich. Then R and I are both off tomorrow!
Two Weeks Away 