ancient.golden.triangle.rome

one can never say that he or she been to rome without visiting some of this most sought after monuments and some made it to the wonders of the world list. we were there on 23rd october which happened to be an entrance free day to visit the ancient golden triangle - colosseum, palatine hill and roman forum. however, trying to take in these  places in one day is heavy…seriously heavy especially if you are trying to understand the history behind the major ruins, the brick, the broken column and you are not alone, there are thousands of people like you visiting the place at the same time.

we started off at colosseum relatively early to queue for a free ticket. with the free ticket, we gave up the idea of buying roma pass since for my historian cum my personal romans history guide, he is only interested in the three ruins…

it's a fine day considering the single digit temperature we had in the lowland... we check out the famous colosseum, a place where gladiators fight to entertain the crowds...

the interior is not properly maintained at all... standing there i wish i could really take a moment to travel back to the ancient time imagining myself being one of the audiences and watching a fight that entertaining and hopefully not too bloody...  but not a moment that i was not disturbed by the crowds, the camera flash and the small chat in different languages plus the elbows that pushing around in order to walk through the small passage....

we left colosseum for palatine hill, it's a lot quieter and a space to breath and to take in the view slowly....
here there are plenty of sights to see, all ruins and only the imagination could help to paint a picture on how this hill would look like many many years ago....  any lack of imagination and a historian mind, this place is just a hill with nothing more than just ruins, brics and bracs....

the palatine hill is linked to the roman forum which is another massive ruins by itself..... we decided to take a break after palatine hill to look for some food as the afternoon sun is really warm and makes one tiring walking without a shade....

after our lunch break, we took a different route to the roman forum and some flowers are still beautiful in october, no wonder rome is a favorite destination to escape the winter cold....

at the roman forum, we have to watch out every step we take because the brics and bracs, broken columns, crushed marble are everywhere on the ground....

even someone who is deeply rooted in roman history still need to read up on the spot to get the full out of the visit...(ahem...)

pantheon, not within the golden ancient triangle, not an intentional visit either, we passed by here because giontti is just two blocks away from here...

again we are confronted with the endless stream of tourists (like us) everywhere, day or night....perhaps that is just how an eternal city, ancient rome should be...