The Purple Penguin

So, everything says to do the Colosseum first, then go to the forum. But when I looked at tickets I couldn’t get tickets for the morning – not on any of the tours. Couldn’t get a below the scenes tour at all, in any language. But could get a Panoramic view tour in English at 13:35. This ticket covered standard entrance to the Forum/Palatine Hill and the Colosseum with a tour up to the fifth level. So went for that and going against all the advice decided to do the Forum in the morning and Colosseum in the afternoon. Yeah.

Up early due to a family on the same floor that all yell at each other. Or are just very very loud. So up and breakfast and headed out to the Forum getting there as it opened. Think we were some of the first through the gate (Joe thinks we were about the third) and the very helpful staff told us which Colosseum entrance to go to at 13:00. After looking at the map, decided to head straight up Palatine Hill. Where I discovered the Palatine museum entrance is actually in the ticketed area and you can’t get to it from outside. Well drat. So we didn’t see that as it was an extra charge and not included in our ticket. None of the interiors were covered. So we walked all over the hill –  the entire area is huge. Then down through the 16th/17th century gardens which had been restored (and only opened a year ago),  the Farnese Gardens, to the forum. We walked through the forum, but it was getting near 12:00 so we did that quickly and along to the exit. 

Found a place for a drink and pizza. Expensive as it was by the Colosseum but we were expecting that and the pizza was actually quite good. Then back to ancient Rome and our tour!

However, when we got to the gate we were given a sticker then told to come back at 13:40. Oh. We could have seen more of the Forum (Joe sighed). So we sat and chatted to a bloke visiting from San Fransico, before joining the other tourists waiting for our tour. Then off into the Colosseum!

The Belvedere tour is good. I’d like to have combined it with the tour that goes under the arena, but just the Belvedere is very good. You go in a separate entrance, but then join the crowds on the first level to walk around to the gate that leads up. From that level on, it’s just the Colosseum tour groups!  IT goes right up to the fifth level where you have an excellent view over the entire area, as well as views out over Rome on each of the levels you stop on. It’s well worth doing. As well you get lots of information about the building and the area. We both really enjoyed it. When the tour ends you can spend time wandering around the open areas of the Colosseum. So we walked around and saw the lower levels before leaving.

We then headed back to the hotel the long way – down toward the Circus Maximus, along the Circus which is now a park, then around the Forum behind the Capitoline Museums and then along to the hotel, stopping for some wonderful gelato on the way – Joe got lemon, vanilla and dark chocolate and I had the totally weird selection of Sour black cherry, mango and pistachio. Weird but very very good. My favorite was which ever I was eating at the time.