The next day: the great sleep in

We made it through that grueling first day, napping briefly between our visit to the Vatican and dinner at our hotel. The lines into St. Peter were long and the secret entrance at the Sistine Chapel was not available to the casual tourist, so we 

vowed to return during the week.

By 9pm we were sacked and ready for bed...best last words: "I'm going to try to stay awake just a little longer...[snore]"

We slept in the next morning and got a leisurely start to our first full day in the eternal city. We caught a bus to the Cornelia metro station, then took the subway to the stazione Colosseo.

Walking out of the darkened station and having just admired a much graffitied train, you step into...the light shining brilliantly through the arches of one of the wonders of the ancient world--just standing there across the street in front of you, as big as nobody's business, as big as three football fields, as big as, well, as big as the Coliseum! "Hello," it says, "where have you been?"