TRAVEL ITALY: Roman Forum, Palantine and the Colosseum!

Our Hotel does two morning shuttle bus lifts to the Ciampino train station so we had a bit of a lie in and got the 10am shuttle bus. Love the train here, its double decker, it makes me feel like a 13 year old again when you had to always sit on the top deck of the bus, the novelty has worn off now, but not for a train! It's new and I feel awesome! (I know, I know, 21 going on 12)

At the Termini we got the B line Metro and got off that the Colosseo station. The first thing you see when you get to ground level is the sheer size of the Colosseum, raising high and wide in front of you, sun shining behind it. A very impressive sight never mind that its 2000 years old!
Thankfully an off peak season and early on a Sunday it wasn't too full, however, we decided we'd head first to the +Roman Forum  and Palantine.
A "redutto" combination ticket to see all 3 was just 7.50 euro, choosing to forego the audio guide.
We turned left and explored the Palantine area first, the area where the mythological story of Romulus and Remus began, the founders of Rome.
We spotted a HUGE aqueduct, some of which are still used in Rome and has brought fresh drinking water throughout Rome since the Roman era, I later used a public water tap to refill my bottle!
There was the old "stadium" or "horse training ground" which would have been like a beautiful garden track area for the horses. Lots of different levels of buildings remained and huge sections of architecture, amazing to still be in existance after so long, especially since it's exposed to the elements. Rebecca (My sister) and I were quite naughty....we may have taken some "souvenirs" from the ground, shards of stone, even some pottery. Bad I know, totally worth it though (I have some shards from the royal palace in Bangkok and Angkor Wat) It had become quite cold and had begun to rain, we had some lunch under a tree and marvelled at how some of the oranges had already begun to ripen even though it was January. The was a miniature indoor museum built to house some of the artifacts found in the area to protect them from the weather, statues, frescoes and part of marble designs.It was quite interesting it showed and explained how the Romans used art and propaganda to depict Queen Cleopatra as a Gorgon (Medusa) and the struggle and defeat of Marc Anthony and Agustus as okay by depicting them as Hercules and Apollo. There was also many designs the defeat of Egypt. There were even older archeological finds underneath, from the megalithic period!
We looked down into Flavia's house but unfortunately it was all sealed up (perhaps for renovation purposes?) It looked amazing, large with great frescoes remaining on it! We could look through Augustus' house though, protected under a series of roofs. We could go inside some of the rooms here and look at the remaining bright frescoes in reds, oranges, yellows and greens.
We wandered onwards, walking through many of the "hortos"  one of which still had a beautiful marble working fountain in some of its originality from over 2000 years ago, impressive! We took an underground walkway (which would be so eery to do at night!!) and ended up behind Flavias (known as a Crypto) from around the "nymph garden" having gazed over the Roman forum from a beautifully raised Panoramic area.

We saw the beautiful underground natural looking grotto known as the "Nymphaeum" which still had some remaining frescoes and mosaic tile floors, the "fountain" was designed to look like a natural underground waterfall.
The Roman forum  was amazing, more buildings remained, more columns, like an ancient city centre closely spaced together. The sun was finally out, and although still cool it looked beautiful, the sun against the azure skyline with ancient marble ruins, temples, columns and buildings, darted before us, amidst paved paths and grass areas.

There were some tour guides taking people around the ruins, couldnt believe it when I heard and American guide compare the great fire of Rome to the 9/11...ITS NOTHING LIKE IT!!! I really cannot stick some Americans, they think they know everything and always try to relate everything to them (then again, I know a lot of non Americans like that too!)
There were remains of some of the temples; Apollo, Saturn and Cybele (a female temple) Ceasars temple and the Cryio was where the public could go to listen to the emperor and voice their own opinions and problems. It was HUGE! And still in great condition. The ground floor was nearly 2 stories in height, there were still some hints of frescoes on the walls.It was interesting to see that he interior architecture so popular in the villas of the Renaissance period was seen here, the high rooms and arch ceilings!

I loved being able to walk upon the large cobbled slabs where the Romans once walked upon over 2000 years ago!

Next was the famous Colosseum. Beware of the gladiator men, do not get a photo with or off them, they will demand a fee,  a large fee! Beware pickpockets and scammers, a friendly man outside offered us a tour which would cost 30euro each!

Its so huge, the floors so large! It's always been a famous Roman monument over the centuires, a constant remainer of Rome's greatest, its witnessed so much! Although most of the marble has been stripped away over the centuries for other projects (mainly by the rich for personal monuments and buildings) it still depicts the greatness and advancement of the Roman Intellect, their ability to create this huge arena through sheer man and animal power.
Games were performed here, Gladiators fought, Christians and Prisioners died, animals attacked and water shows were preformed. Many Christians were attacked, killed and eaten alive by beasts, remains of wolves, horses, bears and even griffons (which i personally thought were mythological) were found!

 We went up to the 2nd floor (only those with special permission or on a tour can go to the 3rd remaining floor) It was still really high up but the view was still excellent, the stage floor was gone (it would have been wood, natural fibres decay quicker, particularly wood and textiles) underneath the stage was a complex system of small spaces and slots used for a pulley system for flooding and letting out the animals, small cramped hard heavy conditions needing tens of men to work together in these small underground spaces to pull together to move the door. The sheer size, complexity, age and remains of this arena is outstanding! Our decision to go after the forum was a good one, less people were there and we sailed in having already got our tickets at the forum, no queue for us!

Cold and tired with dusk in the horizon we headed to Spagna for some shopping and dinner. We entered the old Greek coffee shop (the oldest in Rome and a must see) it was lavishly decorated inside, full of antique paintings and rich furnishings, however we quickly left having discovered the ridiculously expensive price of coffee, near 9 euro!  We ended up having a take away coffee at the Trevi fountain when dusk finally reached us.We had dinner in a home made spagetti restaurant,  We bought some wine, browsed the shops and heading for the train arranging to get colleted by the shuttle bus, we were tired and tomorrow would be another long day. unfortunately, we got off a stop too early. There was nothing at this stop.I Panicked. The shuttle bus took pity on us and agreed to collect us. We waited at the side of the road, got several stares, particualrly from driving men, not good! they could have crashed! I really dont have much transport luck!