9/9/08 – 4.30pm

The day got off to a good start with a visit to the Colosseum – though accompanied by a rather grisly commentary on all the horrid things that used to go on there.

The skeletal remains of the Colosseum

I had been inside the Colosseum before, but its scale is incredible every time.  I bought some books at the Colosseum bookshop including one on ancient erotica!!

From there we got on a bus down to the Baths of Caracalla, which were amazing – really high ruins and some great mosaics.

One of the mosaic floors of the Baths of Caracalla

We then got the Metro to this random museum in a former power station  – Montemartini – where we learnt about Roman portraiture.  The juxtaposition between the old power station equipment and the classical sculptures was rather bizarre, but quite cool!

Juxtaposition between ancient and modern at Montemartini

After that we were free for the rest of the day so a few of us got the Metro back to the Colosseum and eventually found a restaurant not far from Trajan’s Column.  We’d been given lunch as usual but were really in the mood for pizza.  The pizza was delicious and we followed it with yummy ice cream from a gelateria near the Fontana di Trevi.
Our plan had been to hire one of those crazy four-person bike-type things and race round the Circus Maximus in them, but by the time we’d had the gelati we were tired and wanted showers so we made our way back to the BSR on foot.