A Day of Excess in Rome

The day started well. An early morning trek through Rome to the Pantheon was lovely. Walking through the cobbled lanes past the decaying buildings really set the scene. The Pantheon was almost free from tourists so we could absorb the incredible structure with its open dome ceiling without having to jostle for space. We found a supermarket (very rare in Rome) and bought some fresh food for lunch. It was heaven eating crunchy food instead of pasta, paninis and pizza. Talk about carbohydrate overload. Then The Bad Thing happened. Our Vatican experience will be remembered largely by our need to find the EXIT sign. There were just too many people to enjoy it so we raced through the museums and Sistine Chapel just to escape.
A scary taxi ride later found us at the impressive Colosseum. Those Romans were a bloodthirsty lot! Jessie was horrified by the accounts of wolves, lions, bears, boars and rhinoceroses being slaughtered in their thousands by the gladiators and each other. There was an amazing account of a 'herd' of ostriches being let loose before being decapitated one by one with a bow and arrow. What a structure and the stair cases were incredibly steep.
Then we headed off to the Palatino and Forum to see the remains of Ancient Rome before totally konking out and returning back to the hotel via a death by taxi experience. The Romans have very few road rules so it's best to shut your eyes if you are a passenger. In fact we saw a girl get hit by a car in front of us but she hobbled off and kept going.
The Romans are an interesting species. They dress so beautifully, especially the MEN which is very nice to see. The women tend to have long curly hair which I love, so nice to be free of the blond straightened hair look in Australia.
There are a few beggars mainly crooked old ladies and people with disabilities which is hard to see amongst the wealth of tourists and locals.
Tomorrow we pick up our hire car and drive to Assisi. I'm glad James is driving that's all I can say.