What we did in Rome - Day one in the morning

The first full day we were in Rome, we had booked a tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum through the Viator website here. When booking, we upgraded to a small-group tour (12 people). We arrived at 8:15am to start the tour at 8:30am and it took 3hrs in total.

 

We bought a Metro ticket at the Spagna station (Euro 1.50 pp), took the A train to Termini, and changed over to the B line, getting out at Colosseo station.  When we exited the station, we immediately saw the iconic building in front of us!  There was some scaffolding to the one side, but still it was hugely impressive!

 

 

These are some pictures I took on the inside.  The tour started on the outside, led by a really knowledgeable guide.  I was very interested that the tour company we used had small packs with earphones that you could listen to the guide on, without having to stay really close to hear what she was saying.  Big plus for me.

The tour included going into parts underground and up on the top levels of the building, which were the highlight for me.

Reading the Tripadvisor forums, there is a strong push for tourists to book directly with the establishment for this same underground and top level tour.  It worked out alot cheaper, but I only saw this advice once I had actually booked with the private tour.  I think I would probably pay more for the headset and the guide who gave background before and included the trip and information about the nearby Forum.  The tour guide we had booked with was required to hand over to the official Coloseum guide at a point, but it was only a small part of the overall tour that we had.  I suppose it depends if you enjoy the information from the tour or prefer to read up yourself and how much you want to spend on the experience. 

Once we had seen the inside of the Coloseum, we walked across the road, saw the building constructed by Mussolini and then went into the Roman Forum area.  Layers on layers of buildings, up a steep hill with beautiful gardens, this was an interesting experience.

The tour stopped at the top of the hill with the Coloseum in the background and a monastry on the hill.  We sat in the gardens resting our weary feet for a bit before walking through some of the ruins and looking down on the Circus Maximus. 

We walked down the hill and exited onto the road near the Circus Maximus.  We decided to use the next Metro station, Circo Massimo to get home.  This area was alot more residential than other parts of the city we had seen until then.  Small neighbourhood convenience stores, clothes being sold on racks in the street, hairdressers....

We decided to have a little lunch and found the Bar Circo Massimo that had fresh sandwiches and food ready to eat.  I had a panini with beautifully grilled aubergine and mozarella. Delish!

Yum Yum.