Today all four of us went into Rome on the train and then the metro. Although we're a bit of a way out of town, its very easy to do the train trip in. After a bit of a panic moment when the ancient ticket machine that looked distinctly like a cardboard box ate my 5 euro note (luckily Johnno kept pressing the buttons and it spat it out), we were off. Got to Coloseum - I have seen it before but my gosh, it really is a great sight to see! It is a fantastic place and this time Lei and I had decided we'd do a tour. On Contiki a couple had highly recommended a tour company and they had such a blast that we really wanted to do it too. So after seeking out tour company number 5 (not one of the ones that wouldn't tell us their tour company number - slightly dodgy!), we had an awesome tour with Max from Tourus Maximus (website here - note not the most advanced website).
Good ol' touristy Gladiator pic. I'm the winner :)

Inside the Colosseum, the area where animals were penned which was under the wooden floor, can be seen. Also many tiers of seating.

Our tour guide was Massimiliano [is that Max a Million?]). He was brilliant, used to be an archaeologist. We learned that the Coloseum was built over a lake and about the way they earthquake-proofed the structure by putting melted lead into pre-drilled holes, through the columns. But with marble pillagers (marble was used by popes for various buildings eg. St Peter's Basilica) it became weaker and collapsed in places. It used to be 3 concentric rings but now the 3rd one is gone). Also the floor of the fighting area was made of oak wood and was covered with a sand from Italy, chosen to soak up blood well. Wikipedia has some great info here. Another site here.

They used to fight with panthers, lions, tigers, rhinocerus & crocodiles, which would be starved. The crocs apparently used to get homesick & sometimes not do much. There were different classes of Gladiators - firstly, those that were criminals & slaves who were forced into fighting and if they won enough fights, they were given their freedom. There were also those that chose to be a Gladiator and found a manager. They could earn the equiv of €500,000 (80% going to manager of course) for a fight and gained fortune and lots of women.

Commodus (Wikipedia here), the emperor who ruled from 180-192AD & rated himself as the the reincarnation of Hercules, liked to fight and kill, so he had hundreds of fights staged for him. He killed something like 1800 people who had to use wooden swords while he used a real one and they were exhausted by stabbing/starving also, so they couldn't fight. (This is the emperor that the emperor character in the movie Gladiator was roughly based on.)
One of the sculptures in the associated collection in the Colosseum. It's dated about 3BC or something.

After our fantastic Coloseum tour and walking around the Coloseum a bit more, we grabbed a bite to eat and went on a tour of Palantine hill (included in our Col. tour price). This hill is where the palace (and associated villages/temples) existed and has been excavated over the last 100 or so years I think? Not much of it left really - as our guide kept saying 'you'll have to use your imagination'. Was a grand place though with big gardens, heated rooms with big glass windows out to the garden, and a field for the kids to ride horses etc.
View from Palantine hill over the Roman Forum (area of government buildings)

Lei and I

After Palantine Hill we walked towards the Trevi fountain. My mum absolutely loves it, and; like mother, like daughter, so do I. We had some gelati (of course) and discussed our loves/dislikes about Rome...
Trevi (yes, another photo)

Four clowns in front of the fountain.

We then visited the Pantheon and went inside. It's a big church that has three tombs in it. One is King Emmanuelle II and also Raphael, the artist, is buried here. It's a lovely building with a huge dome that is lauded as one of Rome's great pieces of architecture. We then found some dinner near the Piazza Navona (info here). Unfortunately the beautiful Four Rivers fountain was fenced up, for restoration probably. Great dinner & because 4 of us ordered meals we got a free pizza! What could be better :)
Inside the Pantheon and Emmanuelle's tomb