ROME, ITALY

I had only one day in Rome, and not even a full day. My train from Naples arrived at 1:30pm, and my flight to Istanbul departed at 9pm. But in between those hours I kept busy sightseeing. I purchased a metro day pass for 6E, hopped on the B line, and got off at Colosseo. When I exited the metro station and walked outside, BAM, the Colosseum was right in front of me!! No need to go looking for it, as its literally across the street from the metro station!


Its currently undergoing restorations, but thankfully only half of it was covered in scaffolding, leaving the other half looking nice for photos.


I was hoping to get some photos taken with some sexy gladiators ... but was hugely disappointed. They were all old guys wearing plastic abs LOL!! So I just took photos from afar when they weren't looking.


The lineup to get into the Colosseum was LONG! I knew it would be, as I'm sure its everyone's #1 thing to see in Rome.

I decided to skip the Colosseum and visit the Roman Forum / Palatine Hill first. One ticket of 12E gives you entry to both the Colosseum & the Roman Forum / Palatine Hill.

Arco di Constantino





If you don't plan on going inside the Colosseum, then (unless you are really into Roman history) don't bother with the Roman Forum/Palatine Hill. As it turns out (I found out after I had already bought my ticket and spent hours wandering around) there is a free lookout point over the Roman Forum along the road Via dei Fori Imperiali. You can see a bit of Palatine Hill from that viewpoint as well. The part of Palatine Hill that cannot be seen from the viewpoint isn't really worth it anyways. Its huge, but in the end, its a bunch of crumbled walls badly labeled, so most of the time you don't know what you're looking at anyways.

The following photos are from inside the Roman Forum.







The following photos are from inside Palatine Hill. You be the judge as to whether its worth 12E or not.




If you opt out of entering, then farther along Via dei Fori Imperiali, is the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument.

I didn't have time to go inside (I had to head to the airport), but there is an elevator inside that takes you tp the rooftop for 360 degree views of Rome. Its 7E.









Across the street from Vittorio are these 2 cathedrals.

I only had time to snap a photo before heading back to the metro. The sun was setting by this time, and Via dei Fori Imperiali was now packed with street vendors, musicians, horse & carriage rides, painters, etc.

I looked around at some souvenirs, and had a quick bite to eat while watching the sunset over the Colosseum, then hopped on the metro and headed to the airport for my flight to Turkey