Days 35 and 36

(Dan’s comments are italicized)

And so, it was time to go to Rome. We’d booked a tour of the Colosseum that included the Colosseum floor and underground so I was very excited as I’d been wanting to do this for 38 years. Sadly, it was cancelled the day before (supposedly because of Global Warming protesters, but I think they just didn’t have enough people as we didn’t see any protests!) We still managed to book a (regular) last-minute tour so off we went.

The Colosseum’s size is impressive! It held between 50 and 70 THOUSAND people! That’s a Superbowl stadium full of people watching the poor/slaves maime and/or kill each other! And the ‘sport’ started as a funerary celebration (“Oh my uncle’s died so let’s organize that some gladiators maime each other”!?!?!) I’ve realized that I wouldn’t have made a good Roman; of course, I’d have been a servant and I definitely wouldn’t have made a good servant! Just ask Dan 😂 I’m staying quiet! 🤐

The tour we’d booked wasn’t good so we dumped them and walked around ourselves. The arena was impressive…but the crowds were overwhelming…

…so I started taking photos of appealing angles!

I have learned that I now have a huge problem with huge crushes of people. Our guide was kind enough, but the crowding was claustrophobic, and the tour guide was not moving us through the building. Rhia’s use of “magic eraser” to remove people from these photos must have been the reason her phone was overheating.

As it happens, we weren’t sad that our original tour was cancelled as the ‘floor’ is that white bit to the left of the photo and ‘underground’ was the maze of buildings sitting there in the sun! It seems that if there aren’t many steps involved, I’m not as impressed as I used to be 😂

We then walked around admiring some of Rome’s other sights.

When Rome was taken over by the Catholics around 850 AD, they built cathedrals on top of pagan ruins so that the latter would be forgotten. It seems, therefore, that ‘cancel culture’ began a long time ago! However, the cathedrals are beautiful inside.

Finally, no trip to Rome would be complete without a visit to the Trevi fountain. I take my photos in ways that hide most of the tourists…

…and, of course, I have my new favorite toy; Magic Eraser!

Our day in Rome ended with our train being an hour late arriving and then taking 5 1/2 hours for a trip that had taken 65 minutes in the morning. At one stage, I asked a train worker if there was a problem and he replied, “Yes, big problem” as he walked off. We looked at each other and looked at the exits. Then another passenger explained that the highspeed line was broken, and we were relegated to the regular speed lines. I think the man was going to be home late for dinner. It was almost midnight when we got back to our room, tired and hungry, and still oblivious as to what the big problem was.

The next day, we’d hoped to relax on a beach close to Naples but we were both a bit grumpy so things didn’t quite go to plan. We did, however, find a tram that goes up the mountain we’re staying on that will cut down on some of our walking.

We took the tram up at first, thinking we may see some pretty views…but we only saw the inside of the mountain!

So we took it down the mountain to a train station and onto a beach.

It was a pretty day and the beach was lovely…we were the part of the equation that didn’t work out 😂 but tomorrow is a new day and we have big plans…