05-Feb-23
Back on the bus for day 2 of sightseeing!
Every first Sunday of the month, a bunch of normally ticketed attractions are free. We started at the Colosseum, but the line for free tickets wrapped halfway around it! So we wandered around instead.
We wandered up a little path that goes past the Forum. (The ticket for the Forum is combined with the Colosseum ticket, so no jumping ahead.) There's the back of the Altare della Patria.
We followed the path up to a dead end and the Church of Blessed Bonaventure Gran.
A Franciscan missionary, Leonardo da Porto Mauorizio, is credited with helping to save the Colosseum. In the mid 1700s he got permission from the Pope to put stations of the cross in/around the Colosseum, which was in a deplorable state. By installing the stations, it reinvigorated interest in the Colosseum and helped continue its preservation.
There is a nice terraced garden for the monks who live here.
KC was very interested in the fish that lived in this fountain.
I was very interested in this etching that is a skull and crossbones but done in the style of the Papal Crest/iconography.
We wandered back down to the area around the Colosseum and got back on the bus.
This is Campidoglio a squared designed by Michelangelo.
This couple was getting engagement photos? or something similar. She had to be freezing. I think the seagull really makes this photo.
It's the Forum!
The Forum, now with more bored Max.
We climbed the steps of the Altare della Patria just in time to see the small changing of the guard ceremony.
Mmm, yes. Very Italian.
Vittorio Emanuele II and his horse.
Rome at sunset!
Zoom out!
