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Other entries in Rome

Day 2

The first full day in Rome. I had planned the entire day out last evening. First I'd make my way to Catacombe di San Sebastiano on Via Appia Antica and then walk along it towards the city centre until I've had enough or the day ended. Not everything went as planned.

To cut the long story short, I found myself standing on Via Appia Antica some three hours later than I had planned. That three-hour journey from the Termini station involved a broken-down metro train, me getting on a wrong bus (actually, I had been told that it would go where I wanted to go, so that's not entirely my fault), then retracing my steps back to where I got on that bus, and eventually finding (and double-checking) one that did go there. But... It turned out that the bus did not travel down Via Appia Antica, as I had thought it would, but on another road in that general area. By the time I was sure of that (and it took a while because there're no names on the bus stops, and also no announcements in the bus) I was already quite a distance from my intended destination. So I got off not knowing where exactly I was, and having ruled out bus travel for the foreseeable future I started walking back on the road along which the bus had come until I finally could point my location out on a map (it's a bit hard to do with no street signs anywhere). Anyway, about half an hour later I was strolling down Via Appia Antica. Soon I discovered that the catacombs and other sites I wanted to visit were, contrary to what my guidebook said, closed. Since there was not much for me to do there, I walked back towards the city, more specifically, to Porta San Sebastiano. In all there were two sites along Via Appia Antica that I could visit: Tomba di Priscilla, and Chiesa di Domine Quo Vadis. But they weren't worth the effort and time I'd put into getting there. Fortunately, this episode was the only hitch I experienced during my stay.

By 1200 I was already walking through the ruins of Terme di Caracalla. It's a huge complex of baths dating from the third century AD. It's really impressive. It's a pity that it's all behind fences, though. I did not want to linger there too long, and after some 45 minutes (enough time to have a good look around) I left. My next stop was Palatino, but I took a rather circuitous route to get there: climbed the Aventine Hill, went down to Circo Massimo, then on to Piazza Bocca della Verita. I planned to see the famous "Mouth of Truth" but it turned out that probably every tourist in Rome at the time had a similar idea and, not wanting to spend the whole day in a queue I proceeded along Circo Massimo to the entrance to Palatino. One of the best things about Palatino is the stunning view of the Forum Romanum it provides. After spending about an hour criss-crossing the Palatine Hill, and getting a bird's-eye view of the Forum, I went down to walk among the ruins. The final destination of the day was the Colosseum. That's where I spent the rest of the day. By the time the sun was setting down I was so exhausted that I went straight back to my hostel and spent the evening lying on my bed and trying to plan out the next day.

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