Ok so the Star Wars observant among you will soooooo know it typed Palpatine Hill to start with….. I am my husband’s wife 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

Another amazing day and my last full day in Rome. I will sleep for a fortnight when this is over.

Today I had booked with Crown Tours for the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. The tour lasted 3 hours but they left us in the Colosseum to wander for the rest of the day if we wanted.

It was such contrast to yesterday but only because it was all in ruins…. This ancient area of Rome was as beautiful in its day, if not more so than the Vatican.

I’m not even going to remotely try and regale you with the history of the area. A tour is an explosion of information, while trying to get sunglasses on and glasses safely put in the bag, then glasses on and sunglasses put safely in the bag… while trying to listen and take photos…. you get the gist.

When you travel alone there is no one to hold anything. You just have to try to manage everything as best you can… while ensuring pickpockets don’t see you as fair game.

Palatine Hill is seen as the birthplace of the City of Rome around 1000 BC. It’s where all the upper class lived and all the imperial palaces were built. It had stunning views.

Everything was marble and decorated, even the servant quarters although not to the same extent and the imperial rooms.

The Roman Forum is in the low lying area between the hills and this is where everyone gathered for open air meetings from around 500 BC.

Before the Roman Forum and Colosseum were built, the whole area used to be marshland it was drained around 620BC due to constant flooding. That drainage system is still in use today.

The Roman Forum housed some of the most majestic temples and monuments.

The Colosseum was obviously where all the blood sports took place…. Animal against animal, animal against criminal, criminal against criminal and obviously the gladiators, some of whom became as famous as current footballers would do. Some 450,000 people were killed in the Colosseum in its day…. That’s a sobering thought as you stand inside it. that was all stopped by the Christians in the 6th Century.

The Forum was abandoned in the 7th century for the river area. A huge earthquake in the 9th century toppled many of the buildings and by the Middle Ages it had all been built over. Hence the ruins.

In true Julie fashion I got there early as this was by far the biggest distance I had to travel this weekend.

So many people told me that everything was within walking distance…. But it’s not when you don’t book the correct hotel and you have 45 minutes worth of train journey to get there.

I boarded the train at Balduina and had to take 6 stops to Roma Ortiense.

I chose to wear my short shorts this morning. Until now I’ve been blending in with the Italians wearing long trousers, they also have long tops and jackets with scarves. That’s a generalisation but there are a lot of them dressed for Scottish winter!

Today I stuck out like a sore thumb and I had the only visible legs on the first train!!!

I had to change at Ortiense onto the Metro and it was a good 6 minute walk with my legs on show through Italian suburbia. I only relaxed when I saw other tourists, once I got to the Colosseum. It shouldn’t matter what we wear and I tried to tell myself that the whole way there!

I got to the Colosseum for 8.30am and my tour was at 10. This gave me time to get some photos. The queues were already massive!

I found a nice wee cafe on Via Poliveria (reminded me of my friend Alice as it’s nearly her surname!!) and had a decaf espresso…. Yup I know…. 😂😂…. And a lovely pistachio filled croissant. It was so good.

Our tour started at the Roman Forum.

This old church was only opened in October having been closed for 50 years… they have managed to clean some of the art on the walls.

You can see Jesus in this one.

We are starting to climb up Palatine Hill now.

Looking down to the Colosseum.

I honestly have so many photos I don’t know where to start. I also don’t know that they all load up properly when I publish the blog. I’ll do a minimum for now.

That green door is the one of oldest doors in Rome… believed to date back to 300 BC.

We headed down into the Colosseum.

This was also incredibly busy. Thousands of people wandering around…. Just to give you some perspective.

My tour was the Arena Tour so you get right out into the main arena.

I finally left the Colosseum about 2.30pm… and was ravenous. I tied to go to a recommended restaurant but it was queued out… so I just pick a random roadside eatery and had some garlic bread and another veggie pizza….

I’ve already warned Craig that the garlic from the garlic bread will still be there when I get home tomorrow!!! It was soooo strong.

I didn’t have any plans for the afternoon so just wandered aimlessly, with a metro station always in mind.

I found some really lovely buildings and fountains.

I’m sitting on a comfy seat in the hotel gardens writing this…. As the pool is not open yet…. But I’ll head up soon and that will be me for the night. Pick up is at 9am tomorrow so I’ll get a lie in!!

I’ll be bombarding you with videos and photos when I get back. I’ve been so lucky with the weather. Not a cloud in the sky.

Stay safe everyone ☀️☀️☀️