One word  – AMAZING! Just the detritus left from the world’s first large-scale recyclers boggles the mind. It’s hard to imagine “downtown Rome” as it existed in the first century AD. Consider this: a wood scale model of the Coliseum, created in the 1770’s as part of a restoration project and on display today, nearly predates our country. Since descriptions are inadequate, I’ll let the photos speak for themselves:

The Coliseum – Rome

Palatine Hill – Rome

Arch of TItus – Rome

After the tour and a nice lunch next to the Forum (great wine and great coffee – so I’m told – were consumed: when in Rome…), we headed to Siena via il treno. For some reason, Dierks Bentley’s Drunk on a Plane kept running through our minds. Maybe it was the vino or the pair of cats serenading us from the next seat (I’m hearing cats on a train…). We visited the Piazza del Campo and viewed the

Torre del Mangia – Siena

Torre del Mangia (Tower of the Eater – Google it for the back story) – we thought about about climbing the 400 steps to take in the panorama of Tuscany; once we realized that we’d have to use those same steps to descend, we decided that supper and more vino was the prudent course of action (we’d already logged 20,000 steps and 50 flights of stairs for the day).

Since tomorrow’s Sunday and we can’t tour the Duomo, we’ve already booked a train to Florence. Too bad – we’d love to spend more time here.

***Remember to click on any pictures to see them larger.