Colosseo/ Colloseum

The Colloseum is one of those places that many people immediately recognize.  I love looking at it as it is such a huge, incredible structure which has survived despite being looted and trashed by various popes and invaders. It was a massive stadium that could seat up to 80,000 people. Stadio Olimpico, the home ground of ASRoma and Lazio can seat around 73,000.

This diagram that was on an information board within the coloseo shows how the structure worked on different levels.

The underground section visible from the first tier

Half of the arena area has been covered with a wooden platform to show how it was in Roman times

A fairly intact Roman inscription which survived the removal and ransacking of all things Roman by the Popes and other vandals

An engraved drawing found at the colosseum of two gladiators fighting and a rather angry dog

The views of the Palatine and the forum from the colosseum are beautiful:

I woudn't be patting any of those horses

AS Roma v Sassuola at Stadio Olimpico

We were lucky that Roma had a home game while we were in Rome.  Heavy rain was predicted and umbrellas aren't permitted in the stadium so we bought raincoats from Muja and headed off to the game on the tram.  We have been to Stadio Olimpico several times now so know our way around  -which is a good thing as there are always heaps of people, the tram and bus windows are foggy and it is easy to miss your stop.  Luckily that has only happened  to us once.

There were over 50,000 people at the game and it was amazing spectacle.  The serious fans are in special sections of the stadium -the curved ends or curva.  This time there were so many Roma fans and so few Sassuola fans that Roma fans were in the Curva sud and Curva nord.  There was lots of singing chanting and flag waving,  It was a 1-1 draw with Sassuola scoring the drawing goal in the last few seconds of the game.  Roma didn't play that well and really should have been much further in front -there were lots of missed opportunities for goals and a few questionable refereeing decisions.
It was good fun and we managed to stay reasonably dry.

Roma fans in the Curva sud

Warming up before the game

Porta Tiburtina and SAID

The manager at the hotel we are staying at suggested that we try Said - a specialty chocolate place in 135 Via Tiberina, Roma The place is an artisanal chocolate factory and sounded like a place that we would like to visit. We decided to walk along the Porta Tiberina part of the Roman walls. It was an interesting walk despite the rain.  Once again we saw how people had used the walls for housing -it would have happened long go and people have been allowed to continue to use them - they probably own the spaces.

Porta Tiburtina

Along the Tiburtina wall

The walls are brick, narrow rectangular bricks.

The walls are massive -in height and width

Porta Tiburtina

Apartments built into the wall

These plants can't be doing the wall any good

Our reward at SAID for our walk in the rain, caffe, cioccolata calda and mignon -tiny delicious cakes

Forum of Augustus

Trajan's forum

The Forums of Augustus and Trajan continue to be excavated and restored, as are many of the Roman archeological sites. Someone has had fun lighting the Forum of Augustus.

Part of the Vittorio Emanuele monument at dusk.  The night skies are beautiful

Forum of Augustus

Forum of Augustus

Forum of Augustus

Trajan's forum

Forum of Augustus

Forum of Augustus

View of the Doria Pamphilj Gallery from Via del Corso, Rome

Napoli

Spent a day in Napoli, we haven't been there for many years and wanted to see how it had developed.  It was really sad to see the deterioration in such a beautiful place.  Napoli could have been one of the most beautiful cities in the world with its beautiful location, beautiful architecture and boulevards, fantastic food and friendly people, but it has lost the opportunity.

At present it is chaotic, noisy, dirty and there is a lot of poverty.  It is difficult to find a footpath that isn't full of holes or has paving stones missing. There is added traffic chaos because of building sites related to the construction of an underground railway. The pollution from the traffic was awful and I felt that I had to wash my hair as soon as we returned to Rome.

We remembered the the Galleria Umberto I and the area around it as having had a variety of great shops but now there are many shops closed in the Galleria and of those there, many were  Antonio Barbaro clothing stores.

The photos below are only of a part of Napoli. We didn't take photos of the backstreets or the crowded markets - we wanted to keep our cameras and also were squashed in with heaps of people and had to avoid dog poo and rubbish. We were walking down one street and started to feel uncomfortable/unsafe and so decided to go back to another main street.
We had been thinking of staying in Napoli but were so glad that we didn't.  There are many amazing things to see but it is just too hard.

Galleria Umberto I

The Royal Palace

A side street

Galleria Umberto I

Galleria Umberto I

Real Teatro San Carlo

Looking back towards Piazza del Plebiscito.  This promenade looks ok in the photo but there was dog faeces everywhere and the place stank of urine

La basilica reale pontificia di San Francesco di Paola

Palazzo Reale

Piazza del Plebiscito

Had a great caffe & granita at Il Gran Caffè Gambrinus -with a view of the Royal Palace

Lemon granita, yum!!!

A view of Vesuvius

Pizza with salsicce & cime di rape

Pizza marinara -delicious tomatoes, garlic and basil

Vesuvius from the train, don't know when we'll be going this way again