I know I said this in an earlier post, but I'll say it here again... Rome is a beautiful & ancient city. Today, I had a great time visiting ancient Rome. Made my way on the metro to Colosseo station, just outside the Colosseum. Train fares are quite ok, 1 euro (S$2) for every journey, regardless of how far. Stepping out of the station, I immediately saw the Colosseum. It's really awesome. It's so hard to believe that it was build almost 2000 years ago. I decided to turn right and visit Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum first before hitting the Colosseum.

I was really lucky coz when I reached the entrance to Palatine Hill at about 10.50am, a guided tour in English (costing only 3.50 euro) was just about to start at 11am. It was so good to have a guide to explain the highlights of Palatine hill. This is the place where it is believed that Rome started out as a village on a hill. There were so many ruins to see and it was fantastic how the romans built these wonderful (and decadent!!) structures. Here's a tree which marks the location of a former temple on top of Palatine hill. The little bridge shows that the temple/shrine was surrounded by water and the tree marks the position where the shrine was. The little mount was left by the archaeologists to show the land which had covered the area before the excavation.

After the Palatine hill tour, I rushed back to the starting point of the tour to join the 12.30pm tour of the Roman Forum. Another good tour with interesting tidbits thrown in. Here's a pic of the central area of the forum. You can see two pillar structures in the pic. The smaller one on the left was part of the Temple of Vesta, home of the Vesta Virgins. Apparently, they comprised 6 girls/women chosen from the age of 6 to 10 yrs and had to serve in the temple for at least 30 years. If they'lost' their virginity during this time, they would be buried alive and the guy who caused her to lose it would be flogged to death.

Next, I went for some lunch before going on to the Colosseum. Lunch was not bad. Had some Tortellini (pasta stuffed with stuff, I think) with ice cream and chicken wings. Quite tasty.. but the whole thing cost more than S$20... and it was considered a fast food joint. Oh yah, decided to try the cappucino. It was really good. Now I can see why I was told that coffee in Rome is not to be missed.

Just stepping into the Colosseum was enough to take my breath away. The scale of the whole thing just makes you wonder how it could even be built almost 2000 years ago. It's kinda hard to describe it in words, the place is something you have to experience. I was a little disappointed that I missed the guided tour by only about 7 mins. Ended up using the audio tour. Wasn't as good as a proper guide, but it was informative. Undoubtedly, it was worth the trip to Rome to see this.

It was past 5pm when I finished with the Colosseum, so I decided to take things easy and go back to Termini for some window-shopping and dinner before going back to my hotel. Found a supermarket (at last) but sadly, thought not unexpectedly, I couldn't find any instant noodles. heh. Should have brought some. But since I was going to be away for more than 30 days, I figured bringing 5 cup noodles wasn't gonna make much of a difference. For dinner, I actually found a pseudo asian cafe called W.O.K. Ordered Yasai noodles (vegetarian fried noodles) with two sticks of Yakitori and white rice and a soft drink. Well.... it was good to have some chinese food. But the cost?... 8 euros (S$16)!! The same meal in Singapore would probably cost no more than $5 or $6. I think the only way I am going to eat anything here is to stop converting it to Singapore dollars.

Tomorrow, I'm either gonna do the Vatican or Capitoline Hill. Shall sleep on it and decide over breakfast.