Rome the second

Happy Ancient Rome Day to all! I'd like to add a disclaimer that some of the old junk might be mislabelled - I was having uneven ground+swarms of school children+is this plan even up the right way issues.

Heh, this is what happens when you glance up from the map you're using to find the Colosseum.

But first onto the Palatine Hill. I believe this to be the Palace of Septimius Severus, so it's unsurprising that I went about saying "Potter!"

There's random artefacts laying about everywhere like so many incapacitated drunks.

Real live archaeology! There was a woman on the site throwing every single loose rock into a bucket, I guess to take them away for analysis and determine which are historically significant and which are, you know, rocks.

Forum west; Forum east.

Arch of Titus, conquerer of Jerusalem. And baker of people into pies, if Shakespeare is to be believed. Which he isn't.

Squee! Stereotypical Roman ruins. Temple of Vesta and Temple of Castor & Pollux.

House of the Vestal Virgins. Like the House of the Rising Sun, except pretty much exactly the opposite.

Arch of Septimius Severus. Potter!

Ah, yes, back to the Colosseum. Awesomely the one ticket gets you into the Palatine, the Forum and the Colosseum, and if you're smart, or the victim of a happy accident like me, you get your ticket at the much quieter Palatine entrance.

Inside the Colosseum. Oddly, it seems much smaller inside than outside. I didn't stay for long because it made me feel kind of pukey with all the connotations of nasty death and Russell Crowe - not to mention the vomitoriums!

This is part of Trajan's Market, on the road between the Palatine and Capitol hills. It's where the dole used to be distributed in Trajan's day, only, in an effort to prevent it being spent on KFC Double Downs and Sky Digital, it was paid in corn.

Into newer Rome now. Il Vittoriano again. I really cannot get over the overblownism of this thing. Also, see those two people sitting there? If you do that a guard will come along and blow his whistle at you. Unless he was trying to start a rave...

View up to, and down from the aptly named Santa Maria in Aracoeli, Saint Mary of the Altar in the Sky. According to my guidebook there's a superstition that if you walk up the steps on your knees you'll win the national lottery. Congratulations, you can afford knee surgery!

Inside. It's chandelierious - not sure what that's about.

This is the ceiling. It hurts my neck even looking at the photo.

Look Bee! Stained glass bees! Quick, lick them! 

View up to, and down to, the Piazza del Campidoglio. Designed by Michelangelo, don't you know. Because that's how he rolled, with a finger in every pie. And lots of piazzas.

Ah, the long-awaited Kill Bill/American Pie crossover. "This one time at Pai Mei camp..."