Day Fifty-Six - Rome

This was our last full day of sight-seeing in Rome before catching the plane tomorrow and heading back to Australia. We have been progressively ticking off a list of the ten “must sees” in one of the guide books left in the apartment.
Today we ticked off the last one on the list which was to walk around the Palatine Hill near the Roman Forum. It has sweeping views over the ancient ruins. We took two trains to get to the Colosseum to walk to the hill and we are getting very nifty at sorting out our way on the train system. There were a lot more people around the Colosseum and in the city today and we could hear many Australians which is a change. We usually only hear Italians, Germans and Americans. We overheard talk of the canonisation of Mary MacKillop on Sunday.
Where there were no people we observed from a distance a young gypsy woman transform herself to an old woman by putting layers of old, bulky clothing over her modern ones. She covered her hands with gloves and her face with a scarf. We later saw her stooped and begging along the pavement on Palatine Hill. She was a very convincing old woman and we saw people giving money.
From Palatine Hill we walked to Piazza del Campidoglio where there is a statue of the legendry she-wolf with Romulus and Remus, the twins credited with the foundation of Rome. We walked through the Victor Emmanuel building which is commonly called The Wedding Cake and has very good views over the ancient ruins on one side and the city on the other. We were going to have lunch at the café on top of the building as suggested by our friend Pam but it was crowded and very hot which was a shame as it would have been good to overlook the ancient ruins. We later chose a cool shady laneway café back in the city.
On the way back to the train we went passed the Column of Marcus Aurelius which is very impressive at twenty-nine metres tall and was erected between AD 180 and AD 193. A frieze runs in a continuous spiral around the column.
As we had a large lunch we opted for our busy local sidewalk café and had bar food with the other Italians. Once again it was good to just sit and people watch.
Before we head for the airport tomorrow we will walk to the Vatican City and see how the preparation is going for the canonisation ceremony on Sunday.
This is the last posting to this blog. It has been a wonderful nine weeks. No doubt we will return to Rome as we have thrown our coins into the Trevi Fountain.
Photos: “Old” gypsy woman on Palatine Hill; Roman Forum; About to knock down the Colosseum; The Column of Marcus Aurelius.