I've now renewed my PBase account for another year so I can start posting again. Unlike last year (when my attempt to renew resulted in my credit card being suspended by the bank) this year the process ran smoothly and easily. So, touch wood and fingers crossed... here's to another year on PBase. Which means it's time to pick a photo a day from my recent trip, because unfortunately I haven't been doing a lot of shooting since I got back.

We had arrived in Rome the previous night, late enough for it to be time to simply head for the hotel and for bed. (I still have trouble getting my head around the whole concept of "Hand over your passports" when you check into a hotel in Europe. Thankfully that level of privacy invasion (which long predates 9/11) has not found its way to Australia. But when in Rome, of course...)

On the first full day I had arranged a 3.5 hour tour for us; Colosseum, Roman Forum and the highlight, the (suspected) house of Augustus Caesar. It was too long, it was too short. It was a 30+ degree C day. (As was every single day that we were in Italia, and the first few in Svizzera weren't any cooler.) You start in the Colosseum which includes walking up several flights of stairs and trying to take in far more data than your brain can actually hold on such a hot day when you're trying to get your breath back.

After that it's a dash up to the Forum where, after passing through metal detectors and a security check, you have "over there is the remains of the temple of Castor and Pollux, over there is the remains of the temple of Saturn, over there is the arch of Septimius Severus, over there is the Curia, quick, look, there's the temple of Vesta, does anybody need to go to the toilet? We have to be at the house of Augustus in 15 minutes". Okay, it wasn't quite as extreme as that, but it was close. Even the guide recognised how tight the timelines were and how little time it left to appreciate what that place once was.

Of course, by the time we got to Augustus's house everyone was hot and tired. The guide even made reference to the battle of Actium and said "Marcus Aurelius" instead of "Marcus Antonius". It's not that she didn't know, it was purely the effect of the heat. And if you mix those two up, it's a pretty bad sign.

Even if the Colosseum had been taken out and put into a separate tour (and in my opinion it should have been since it was almost a century later than the era of Augustus), it would have been extremely difficult to get a true feel for the Forum and Augustus's house. Nonetheless we would have had a better shot at it.

However the Colosseum is the quintessential emblem of Rome. In that sense, it's unsurprising that it was the starting point. So here we are, ready to begin our journey.