This morning we visited the Coliseum.  It was very convenient to get to – just a few subway stops from our hotel.    You come out of the subway and the Coliseum is immediately across the street.  We had reserved tickets, so we didn’t have to wait in line.  We did learn, for anyone else considering visiting Rome, that if you go through to the audio guide line they can sell you tickets there, so that is a good way to buy tickets without waiting in line. 

We bought the guided tour for a few extra Euros and I’m glad we did.  It was nice to get some good information and we haven’t always had good luck with renting the audio guides.  A couple of them really sucked, actually. 

One interesting thing at the Coliseum was this large bronze cross that sits at the spot where the emperor’s throne used to be.  It was placed there in 2000 as part of celebrating 2,000 years of Christianity.  Also, apparently the Pope comes to the Coliseum every Good Friday to do a blessing in remembrance of Christians that were persecuted there.  Actually, though, the archaeologist who did our guided tour said that there is no actual historical proof that Christians were persecuted at the Coliseum, at least no more than any slave or criminal of any other religion was.   

After the Coliseum, we crossed the street and visited the Forum.  For the former center of Roman life it had a surprisingly narrow street.  It’s hard to visualize how great the buildings must’ve been since all that’s left of some of them is a column or two.  

From the Forum we took the subway to the Piazza del Popolo and saw the big obelisk there.  The church there was closed, so instead we headed over to the Borghese.  The gallery itself sits in a large park where there is also a zoo, amongst other things.  The park was very peaceful and had plenty of shade for us to wait in for our gallery reservation. 

We really enjoyed the Borghese gallery, particular the Bernini sculptures.  The museum is a former villa founded by an influential Catholic cardinal who used (or, you could argue, abused) his influence to fill the villa with art.  The villa is considered the first museum in Rome as the cardinal opened it up for the public to view.  The art inside has all been restored and is pristine.  Plus, the audio guide here was terrific.  It pointed out the highlights and the history behind them without going over the top.  We also like that the gallery is by reservation only.  The let 200 people in for two hour blocks of time, so it wasn’t crowded and there didn’t seem to be any guided tours.   So no yelling guides, which was a refreshing break. 

After the Borghese we took a bus/subway combo back to our hotel, which I’m still recovering from.  I’ll just say there was this totally gross, sweaty guy leaning on me in the very crowded mini-bus.  And the subway was pretty crowded, too. 

Tomorrow the Vatican museums and St. Peter’s Basilica, but first dinner!!

Ciao!