ROME 4: Today was see as many monuments as possible day (when a lot of things were closed for the Feast of the Assumption, Ferragosto). The nice thing was, because of the feast day, lots of the roads were closed to cars, particularly around large monuments like the monument to Vittorio Emanuele II. So you could walk along the road and look at things from different angles; quite a strange sensation considering central Rome is usually clogged with traffic

Part of the Palatine Hill complex. Palatine Hill is supposedly where Rome was founded, and it has beautiful views over the city.

Ruins of the complex built for Emperor Domitian, which consisted of the imperial palace, temples, his private residence, baths and a stadium, as well as beautiful gardens

The view of Circus Maximus from Palatine Hill

Part of the Farnese Gardens, one of Europe's earliest botanical gardens

After Palatine I walked through the Roman Forum, the ancient commercial, political and religious centre of Rome. It now consists of lots of falling-down buildings so it's very hard to imagine what it would have been like back then

The monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, also known as the Wedding Cake or the Typewriter. Much as it gets laughed at, I actually think it's quite an impressive building. Yes, over the top, but nonetheless impressive. It was closed to the public on this day but I went back another day

Me in front of one of the fountains by Borromini in Piazza Navona

The grand staircase in Museo di Roma, a beautiful building in itself. I went to an exhibition here by French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, which was fantastic. I'd already liked his photos, and when I saw this museum had an exhibition of his Roman work, I had to go and see it. It was brilliant; scenes from everyday life in Rome during the 40s, 50s and 60s. It was great to see all the places I'd visited as I imagined them to be in my head, not swarming with people

The Pantheon

I wonder what this is...

From another angle: you can see the different walls that make up the Colosseum

Looking through one of the internal arches; again it's hard to imagine what it would have been like, but still, the Colosseum is one of the most impressive monuments that I've seen

From the second level; this shows the underground passageways (oddly called vomitories) that the gladiators used to use.