Colosseum and St Peter

The weather continues fine and warm which is excellant because Mon was an outside day. We went to the Colosseum first which is just as impressive as we were expecting. We wandered all about and also saw the museum exhibition about the early Roman libraries and the history of the development of books.
From there there is a direct path to the Roman Forum. The remaining pillars of some of the temples are so tall that we had already spotted them in our meandering on our first day here. There was lots of camera clicking as you will possibly see when we come home. Probably more impressive because we had no preview was the Roman Imperial Palace on the Palotine Hill. Construction was carried out by successive Emporers and it was a huge complex. Nearby were  other patatial remains but by then my body was demanding lunch and a rest. That evening we caught the Metro to the Spagna station which is the stop for the Spanish Steps. We had a pleasant meal and were entertained by the behaviour of the staff. Young attractive female maitre de managing a staff of young males. Have I said it all? Afterwards we went to join the crowd sitting on the Spanish Steps just watching the world go by. Began talking to a spritely 81 year old gent from Sydney who offered to take our photo on the Steps. He and his wife are regular visitors to Greece and Italy because the Mrs used to work in the Greek Embassy in Sydney. This was a revisit to their favourite places in view of some health issues. A "just in case"  visit. I hope we might be doing the same thing at that age.
Yesterday was planned as a visit to St Peter's and the Borghese Gallery. We were at St Peter's by 10am and even then the queue stretched right around the Piazza. I could tell Bob wanted to walk away but fortunately he really wanted to see the Basilica. The one hour progress was helped by Bob having a conversation with a young German man about travel, motor bikes and pick pockets. The Basilica was very crowded around areas close to the major points of interest such as Michaelangelo's Pieta but  fortunately it is so huge that there was plenty of quiet places.
From there we went on to the Borghese which is an amazing 16th Century building. We enjoyed the sculpture gallery but have seen too many paintings of the 16th and 17th Century to be really wrapped in the art gallery.
Had a quiet dinner at our nearby Pinco Palladiso restaurant and prepared for today. To follow.
Cheers, Gail