Rome - Day 2

To avoid queueing too much we'd booked tickets in advance for the Colosseum (including the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill) in the morning, and for the Pantheon in the afternoon.

After breakfast we caught a tram into the centre. It's easy to use public transport in Rome, you just tap on with a contactless card, and 1.50 euros lets you use the metro, trams and buses for 100 minutes.

We got off the 8 tram at Piazza Venezia and walked over to the Imperial Forum Road which goes down the side of the Forum area to the Colosseum.

We arrived at the Colosseum, a bit too early for our 11am entry time, so we had a walk round the outside.

At 11 we got into the Colosseum without any queueing. The security was very tight, we had to show tickets and our passports, and had our belongings X-rayed.

To start with you get into a viewing area on the ground floor where you can see into the basement corridors and get a feel for the size of the place. It's very busy.

The route then takes you round the outer corridor a bit then up to the first floor. From there you can walk all the way round.

The Colosseum ticket also gets you into the Forum and Palatine Hill area. There are many entrances, with the nearest ones having big queues. We walked round the other side to a much quieter one.

This is a massive archaeological area filled with ruins of temples, palaces, basilicas, government buildings, houses etc. It's spectacular and very hard to take it all in.

At the top of Palatine Hill is reputed to be the hut of Romulus, the founder of Rome, from more than 800 years BC. It's mostly covered over.

There are good views from the higher area of the hill.

There are also more open areas up here.

Even random piles of rocks get an information board.

Back down in the Forum we had a last look around.

We meandered through the atmospheric and busy streets for a bit, stopping for lunch at a restaurant in Piazza di Pietra. We shared a focaccia sandwich with ham and olives, with a salad on the side.

We walked to the Trevi Fountain, which wasn't very far away. These days you can't get right next to it without paying, but you can still look ate it from a slight distance. The crowds were massive.

We'd booked tickets for the Pantheon at 3pm and we were still a bit early, so we walked to Piazza Navona for a look.

At the nearby Pantheon we got in at the allotted time. It's a basilica with a huge dome, after 2000 years it's still the largest unreinforced dome in the world.

After the visit we went to a gelato store, Frigidarium, for some ice cream which was delicious.

We walked back to Trastevere, over a bridge over the Tiber.

We had a drink in a craft beer bar, Ma Che Siete Venuti A Fà.

We walked back to the apartment, where we ate in - pasta filled with meat with a tomato and mushroom sauce, with some parmesan.