Rome, Italy — Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! We woke up and caught the end of breakfast, it looked like most of the other people in the hotel had the same idea.

Most places are closed on Christmas but for many sights the outside is just as impressive. We started wandering through the Jewish Ghetto, there's some excavated ruins, as well as the actual synagogue that's a beautiful building.

Then walked down to Piazza Venezia, along the way climbed the many stairs to Basilica di Santa Maria in Ara coeli. The weather was perfect for sightseeing, sunny and about 14C.

Then the long approach down Via del Fori Imperiali to the Colosseum. On the right the road overlooks the Forum. There's a subway line under construction that blocks the classic view of the Colosseum, but there's plenty of other vantage points.

It was almost 2pm so we looked for a place for lunch. Most restaurants were either closed or serving the traditional large Christmas lunch. We found a little pizzeria with yummy sandwiches, wine by the glass and beer on tap. A lot of locals dropped by, walking their dogs, have a quick espresso or glass of wine. They had the best espresso we've had so far in Rome.

We decided to hang out by the Colosseum and wait for the sun to set. Our hotel gives guests a Android phone with free local calls and data, so we were able to look up the sunset time (4:44pm), about an hour. We also called to make a reservation for dinner at La Tavernetta 29. It's a popular restaurant and we were only able to get in for 10pm.

Settled on the best location to watch the sunset over the Colosseum. Took a lot of very similar pictures. We could probably string them together and make a movie from stills. Heather's iPhone took much better pictures than my camera, especially with the contrast between the sky and shadows.

We weren't quite dressed for standing around in the cold, and we're getting frozen by the time the sky changed colour for the pictures we wanted. Retraced our route back down Via del Fori Imperiali and back to our hotel. A hot shower fixed us up, and then we relaxed / napped before our late Christmas dinner.

Dinner was excellent, our favourite meal to date. Had starters of artichokes, and a caprese salad, then ravioli with truffles, and grilled lamb for the main. At the end the restaurant kept coming over with free stuff - a lemon sorbet, then a cake, and a shot of limoncello to finish. It was all very good, and another late night for us.