These are the famous Spanish Steps, which were apparently in some movie that everybody else has seen but me.
After climbing the steps we found ourselves in a big park (part of the Villa Borghese) overlooking the Piazza del Popolo, which you see here.
The Snook and I overlooking the Piazza del Popolo.
We climbed down from the villa and headed into the Piazza, where the Snook took the opportunity of cooling off at one of the fountains.
Detail of fountain.
I have no idea what these two buildings off the Piazza are. I just liked the way they mirrored each other.
The next day we were off to the Colosseum. Yeah, it’s me and a gladiator. These dorks stand outside in costume and tourists pay to have their picture taken with them. I couldn’t resist.
Inside the Colosseum. We had to wait twenty minutes or so to get in, which you can avoid if you do a group tour. Most of the tour guides annoyed the hell out of me though, so we decided to just pick up an audio guide and explore ourselves.