Nous avons trouves un café internet, donc un tout petit mise-à-jour. Hier le colissé et la fontaine de trevé et un premenade dans le centre ville. Aujourd'hui le Vatican, promenade le long du Tibre etc.

Today we found an internet cafe so a brief update. Yesterday the coliseum, treve fountain and the downtown. Today the Vatican and walk along the Tibur etc.

Update...

(Sorry for the black and white pictures, the camera was incorrectly set for awhile before I noticed it.)

Sun May 7

The tramway that passes nearby brought us to the Coloseum. It happened to be the day that entry was free, so we decided not to wait the hours necessary and walked through the surrounding area which is a foundation of Roman ruins, with structures from more recent eras built over them in places... monumental architecture from all historic periods. 

The quantity of ancient structures is mind-blowing. Not just here, but everywhere in the city there are ruins or buildings of historic interest. Near our apartment are important sections of the Aurelian Walls (built between 271 and 275 AD that surrounded Rome and much of the walls remain so you see sections and impressive gates wherever you go. There are often gates and buildings from various times that are built on or beside older ones. 

Gates near the Piramide subway station. 

Our walk continured on to the Treve Fountain, 

which we could not even approach because of the crowd of tourists. We continued on to the Spanish steps 

and then took the subway home. The evening we walked around our neighbourhood.

Monday May 8

We had reservations for the Vatican museums for 10am. Suzanne had bought tickets online so we didn't have to wait in the line that was already blocks long at 9:30am when we arrived. The visit itself is through endless corridors and rooms with walls and cielings painted with biblical scenes and sculptures or tapiseries and hanging paintings, marble floors etc. What wealth at the service of a class of social parasites! Our tour finished in the Sistine Chapel, the ceiling and walls painted by MichealAngelo. Suzanne was beyond words (actually not, as she explained to me the meaning and importance of the various scenes. Our tour did not include the Bascilica, but we visited St Peter's square 

and its view of the Basilica after before leaving the Vatican.

We than walked along the Tibur.

 Castel Sant'Angelo where some pope hid out when being chased by barbarians or other undesirable elements.

After we took a tram to the stop Piramide to visit the nearby museum Centalé Montemartini an old thermo-electric power plant that now presents the old machines side-by-site with artifacts from ancient Rome that were retrieved during various excavations in the city. One of the problems with publics works in Rome is each time you try to dig a hole you run into ancient ruins that have to be properly excavated and inventoried by archeologists! Unfortunatly we didn't realise that the museum was closed on Mondays.