My Escapes Italy Rome Alternate Route Through Rome to Naples Stop-over Stroll in Rome and the Colosseum

Stop-over Stroll in Rome and the Colosseum

Only about 2.5 hours remained for me to spend in Rome, while waiting for my train to take me down south to warm Naples.
What to do during this timeframe?
The Colosseum didn't seem far (on the map!), so I headed for a short Rome-stroll-exploration!

I reckoned, it's senseless to leave my luggage at the luggage storage and pay for it. My bag has wheels anyway, so why not "take it for a ride"?

Upon checking the right way from the Termini Station to the Colosseum, I set off during a thin drizzle.

Obviously, this wasn't Rome's best area for sightseeing - I was just strolling down from the dirty Termini Station area to the top most famous attraction of the entire Italy: the Colosseum.

There wasn't anything better than the Colosseum to see and I thought if I'd make it there, then it would make my day.

The Colosseum seemed to be very close to the Termini Station - on the map.

The real thing was yet another one of those traveler illusions that we so often have. Dissapointing in the end.

But it wasn't just the the slightly longer distance that was bothering.

It was something else about the route...
Can you guess?

It was sloped.

Dragging my bag down to the Colosseum area was very easy, but the way back was going to consume more time. And it was hard to estimate with a backpack, a heavy roller bag and a DSLR camera bag on my belt.

Urban explorers - please take account of the possibility of elevation when planning your itineraries. It's easier nowadays with Google Earth, but back it only showed the elevation levels of wider areas.

Anyway...

I was able to stroll down to the Colosseum and take a few shots of it from the same place, same angle and then get back: slope-draggin' my bag!

Admire below... the "Great Colosseum"...

The Colosseum amphitheatre was built in 70-80 AD, but to me it had that feel of an industrial age "forgotten" building. Like one of those old 1800's factories in Western Europe.

It's natural for such a building to have thick patina. The building has seen almost 2,000 years and it's in amazingly good shape.

The "exploration" consumed about 1.5 hours of my time, about 30 minutes I spent eating and looking around at the train station, then 30 minutes waiting for my train.

Termini was a crowded station where I couldn't even sit down - unless you use your bag.

As I was ascending on the slope back to the Termini station, I stopped by at a small pizza seller. Two slices of simple Italian pizza cost me 2 EUR.

We had a little chat about "the usual": where I'm from, where I'm going... As I told him with enthusiasm that I was bound for Naples, the guy freaked out.

The pizza seller warned me about the dangers of Naples - obviously, I was traveling to one of Europe's most dangerous cities.

View my Naples escape (destination review) for complete details.

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