Day 2 in Rome - Wednesday 11 September

Another lovely day in Rome, with temperatures in the late 20s! We joined the Barrows at breakfast, and then headed our separate ways for the day.

David and I strolled down to the Piazza del Campidoglio on the top of Capitoline Hill and site of the Capitoline Museum, and used our Roma Pass to tour there for more than 3 hours. We started in the Palazzo Conservatori section and especially liked the special display about the amazing man, Archimedes - it was fascinating how clever he was (Leonardo da Vinci got ideas from his work) and how he met his demise.

 



We had some lunch at the museum (slices of tomato, olives and chunks of mozzarella for me, a bread roll for David, and we shared a fresh fruit salad. The views from the cafe terrace were great. Then we wandered further around the museum and down into the Tabularium (built in the first century BC to hold the archives of Ancient Rome). There were interesting displays on the way around but the views from here out over the Forum Romanum were fabulous, and sad to think that this was where Julius Caesar was murdered! Also incredible to think that this was where the Roman Empire was run from.

From this area we made our way to the second section of the museum (Palazzo Nuovo) where we saw more displays, including the statues of the 'Dying Gaul' and the 'Capitoline Venus'.

Next we followed Rick Steve's guide book advice and took an easy route into the interesting Santa Maria in Aracoeli Church, and then around the back of the Victor Emmanuel building where the views over the city were great, but even better when we rode the elevator right up to the top of the monument - fabulous!

 

We wandered back down towards the Capitoline end of the Forum, passing the replica of the She-Wolf statue feeding Romulus and Remus, and filling our water bottles at one of the many water spouts/taps/fountains around Rome (this particular one is called 'il nasone' ('the big nose'). We'd made good use of these water supplies yesterday, too. Walking in the heat is thirsty work, and the water from these taps is amazingly fresh, cold, and does not taste of chemicals.

We decided to use our Roma Pass for our second free museum, at the Colosseum. Even though we visited there in 2009, we went again, bypassing all the queues. Mind you, we did end up having a frustrating time queuing for audio guides, and wishing we hadn't hired them. But we got there in the end, and marvelled at the information about this incredible building and what went on there.

By now it was 4:30 pm and we needed to have some refreshment, so we headed over to a cafe at the bottom of the street we're staying in, and I ordered a lemonade and some ice cream. David ordered a giant 1 litre beer (that I thought he'd never be able to finish) and shared my ice cream.

Then we hobbled back to our room and freshened up for dinner with Jan and Steve. I couldn't face hopping on a train to get across town and then walking the rest of the way to the fabulous gluten free restaurant I'd found yesterday, so we found a nice little local cafe. Now we're back in our room, all packed and ready to head by train to Naples in the morning, and transfer from there to Amalfi.