Rule #1: Cross the street only at the pedestrian stripes
Rule #2: Don’t expect traffic to slow for you while you stand at the side of the road looking hopeful. You’ll be there for hours and the Vespas will just keep whizzing by, puzzled at why you haven’t made your move.
Rule #3:
Wait for a small break in traffic, show no fear and just start walking. (Don’t dart deer-like across the street that upsets the Romans.) As if by divine intervention that allowed Moses to part the waters, cars and buses will apply their brakes, scooters will smoothly manoeuvre around you, and you will be alive when you reach the other side.
What ever you do, don’t stop in the middle of the road once you’ve started crossing – pedestrian hesitation mid stream confuses Roman drivers!
Amazingly this worked and we were not harmed once! We were very fortunate that we got this advice on our first full day as we wasted no time waiting from then on! We did laugh a few times at those tourists who have not been privy to this information trying to cross the road and amazed at the locals who just walk brazenly out, incredibly the Vespas and scooters just swerve and continue on their way.
We actually picked a great week to go to Rome as it was Cultural Week – many things were free this week. The reason – Rome’s birthday the 21 April (same as Seph) 753BC! Rome is 2762 years old!
To look at ruins and imagine what it was like was quite difficult for me – I lack this skill, so we bought a book that shows before and after pictures of all major places in Rome. This turned out to be a fantastic buy as we would study it the night before to decide the next day’s itinerary and take it with us to each attraction.
A beautiful day and we set off to walk to the Colosseum – a lovely 15 minute walk from our apartment. We walked through a few parks and as we came over a rise out of nowhere appeared this amazing building – standing in amongst the chaos of the traffic and tourists look like ants at the base of this gargantuan building.
A very impressive sight! After the mandatory photo opportunity we continued on our stroll to be met by the sunglass salesman and other souvenirs. We were still not actually on the grounds but as we neared the entrance we are met by a person announcing that there is an English guided tour leaving now if we want to join. The only cost being the tour and we get a free tour of Palatine Hill after. No admission cost to either place. Bargain!To walk around and inside this building was very emotional – it must have been a tremendous thrill to actually attend a gladiatorial fight.
We had a tour for 1 hour – wearing our headsets and listening hard to our guide. In truth we found her hard to understand as, I think, the batteries were low. However we still got a lot of information we just had to concentrate really hard! After this we had about 1:30 hours until the tour for the Palatine Hill, we continued to lap up the atmosphere of this immense amphitheatre. It was designed to hold 80000 people and even had contingencies for rain! Naval sailors would manoeuvre an immense velarium ( in ancient Rome, a large awning used in amphitheatres to shade the audience) until it covered the stadium. Often too the arena would be filled with water and naval battles were staged.
A bit of history…. (Being the teacher I can’t help it)
It began in 72 A.D. and was completed in 80 A.D. It was built by Jewish prisoners. It is well known for its professional gladiators who were trained to fight to the death, while wild beasts of every sort increased the horror of the show. Apparently 9000 wild animals were killed in 100 days of celebrations which inaugurated the amphitheatre. Games continued until the 5th century until a monk entered the arena and put himself between the gladiators and appealed to the people to stop these horrid games. The crowd hurled insults, sarcasm and ultimately rocks, stoning the intruder to martyrdom. But that day the games were brought to an end.
We exited the Colosseum and sat on the grass bank for a while observing life and reflecting on times in ancient Rome. We did not succumb to buying food or drink at the little vendor stands that are everywhere – extortionate prices!
Luckily we pack the backpack each morning with drinks and supplies of nibbles/snacks.
After this we met Michael (our Londoner tour guide) for the Palatine Hill tour. At this stage I wasn’t really sure what we were going to…the name didn’t mean anything and I didn’t like to look ignorant and ask. However we wandered across the road, climbed a small hill and entered a section of ruins (surprise!) Well Michael sure made history come alive – Seph loved him and wandered right beside him all the way asking heaps of questions. Anyway….this is where Rome began in 753B.C. when Romulus killed Remus and drew the square outline of the city. It was the best real estate in ancient Rome,( and still is, if you could get it) after all, the Emperor’s chose to live there. It also overlooked the Roman Forum, which was the centre of the civic and economic life back then.
Michael kept us all enthralled for 1:30 hours. After this we could wander down into the Forum – a huge area of ruins and explore. This is where Caesar himself would stroll, (strut?) around on his way to political, religious and commercial buildings.
Well it was now 3:00 as we embarked on this venture. We wandered through the House of the Vestal Virgins – I now know what these were, biblically speaking! Many basilicas – which in ancient times were not churches but was the central law court of any city, the place where trials and political meetings took place. Plus of course many other buildings, we did try to find the gold in the streets that was melted into rocks during a fire in the bank but couldn’t quite locate it. It is a huge place! 
By the time we finished this – 2 hours it was 5:00 and we were famished – no lunch!
We went in search of food….. but instead found the Capitoline Museum
and it’s fantastic view and architecture, down the steps and around the corner we discovered another monumental treasure – The Tomb of the Unknown soldier 
with eternal flames and guards/ soldiers standing guard on either side. We had our first brush with the law as Hermione sat on a chain link to rest and she got ‘whistled’ at by the police!
We continued on and finally came upon an area of restaurants – whew! We had beautiful pasta then continued on a way home.
A very exhausting but fulfilling day.
One thing I did notice is how close the languages of French and Italian are. I could pretty much understand signs. Amazingly everyone (nearly) speaks English so communicating was no problem – the amount of tourists is incredible, in particular many Americans.
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