Roaming Rome Ruins

I took hundreds of photos of all these ruins in Rome. It is difficult to choose which photos to share. 

After my roaming in the morning, I decided to explore the big 3 ancient ruins in Rome: The Colosseum, The Palantine Hill and The Roman Forum.

From Piazza Venezia, I walked along the street overlooking the Roman Forum (Foro Romano). 

I found it quite amusing that there are all these ancient ruins in this busy city, and people just walk past them. I guess the magnificence gets old if you live there.

Walking towards the Colosseum.

At 2:30 pm, the line looked long but it moved fairly quickly. I was able to purchase my ticket in 30 minutes (at least it didn’t take hours). The ticket for the Roman Colosseum, Roman Forum and the Palantine Hill costs €12. The ticket is valid until the next day. I figured I’ll just go back the next day if I had more time. I’ll enjoy whatever I can see for the day.

You have to climb stairs to move around the levels of the Colosseum. Elevators are reserved for those needing wheelchair access. The stairs were quite steep, IMO, I almost slipped; I resorted to using the handrails everytime I used the stairs.

The Colosseum in an ancient monument built by the Roman Empire which is used for gladiator fights. Imagine yourself being a spectator in one of those combats. My energy immediately spiked when the view of the Colosseum emerged. Obviously, they built some modern structures to keep the visitors safe... or at bay.

Kinda surreal seeing this ancient monument at this angle. It is magnificent from the outside. Glorious from the inside.

How many battles were fought here?

The angle at the ground level

I saw another solo traveler who placed her camera on timer and posed. I offered to take her pic, and she offered to take mine in return.

After around 2 hours of getting toasted, I exited the Colosseum and headed to another ancient structure of Rome: The Roman Forum.

I took a picture of the map. It is huuuuuuuge.

It is huge - and here lies my problem. The ruins are scattered all over this place, and so are the tourists. I need to wait for someone to come along to take my picture.

Luckily, someone came along just when I needed them.

Tabingi nga lang

I don’t think you can tour the entire place for just one day. The ruins look all the same after some time.  

And eventually...I lost my way. Either I can't read the map well, or the map did not reflect some of the paths. I followed a bunch of other tourists who are also lost. 

We eventually found ourselves on a viewing spot.

The view of the city and the ruins

There was still a huge area to tour but I felt like I tried to cover too much ground for one day. I bid goodbye to my one-hour travel companions. I dragged my dusty boots to the nearest exit. Bought a slushie from the first slushie vendor I could find. Then I bought gelato on the first gelato shop I passed.


My tip here: study your itinerary carefully so you won't end up trying to do Rome-in-a-day like I did. The 3 big ruins are clustered together but it can be a bit too much of the same thing if you try to see all of them in one day. Anyway, the ticket allows you access for two days.