The Hole-y Roman Empire

Rome is full of holes... Impressive and very old holes, but they're still holes. See what I mean:

OK, I haven't seen that much of Rome in a day. These are pictures from my walk through the Palitino Ruins, which is basically what I wandered into today. I was looking for the Coliseum, which I did find, but there was a huge line for the bigliettos (tickets) and it was late in the day. I discovered I could get a ticket that was good for 24 hours that included an entrance into the Coliseum, so I get to go in the short line tomorrow.

Even though I've actually met quite a few nice Americans and others at this hostel who are sharing a room with me tonight, this particular leg of my trip is destined to be pretty solitary. I think deep down, I wanted it that way, however now I don't have much of a choice. As much as I love the UK, it is cold and wet, which I didn't expect. I've spent a lot of time having fun and travelling in public places, and even though I was good about my vitamin C, I've come down with a mild throat bug... The throat bug isn't draining any of my energy and I'm still having fun running around, but I have no voice. It's actually kind of ironic. I have 3 books pocket books with me for learning Italian, Greek and Thai. I've been so excited to try to speak Italian that I haven't even picked up the other books. Now I find myself saying the same things over and over again "Mi dispiace, no voce. No parlo italiano. Parla inglese?" which means "I'm sorry, no voice, I don't speak Italian. Do you speak English?" Usually I stop after"no voce". Ok, that may be a little exageration. I do find it funny though, that my voice completely went today when it could have gone on any other day because these bugs are pretty random. I love exploring on my own and it's a very different experience being in the shoes of a mute foriegner.

Speaking of being in people's shoes, check out these shoes! They're pretty massive compared to my foot. I have more toes though.

Ruins do tend to be kind of ruined. This guy's missing a head, and what do you think might have been on top of the stick he was holding?

I just discovered that spell check here is in Italian (as are many other things) so everyone finally gets to see how bad my English spelling really is!


The weather's quite differt here than in the UK. I don't think it's rained for a while and it's pretty dusty. The high temperature was probably about 80F and it's not that humid. Good conditions for dirt to stick to feet in sandles. I took a good long shower after walking around.

OK, until next time - if anyone's thinking of calling me, I'd hold off for a couple of days (because I won't answer because I'm a temporary mute!)