According to our guide book and our favourite Rome travel site (romewise.com), Boxing Day is one of the lesser-crowded days to visit the Colosseum, Forum and Palatino, so that's where we headed after a late breakfast.
We knew the way having walked there yesterday. Our hotel is pretty centrally located - it's been about a 20-25 minute walk to everything we've seen.
Waited about five minutes in line to buy our ticket. One ticket covers entry to all three (Colosseum, Forum, Palatino), valid for two consecutive days, for €12 / person. They accepted credit card too!
First we explored the Forum. It's quite the collection of ruins, in various states of restoration. It's up there on the list of things to see in the world. It was very uncrowded - in some places we were all alone with the view. I was able to get some tourist-free pics which I wasn't expecting.
Palatino hill was more crowded, but not overbearingly so. There was lots of railing space for views overlooking the forum, I think in high season you have to wait for your turn.
There was a long line up to enter the Colosseum, so we decided to go for lunch and then come back near close. Yesterday we had stumbled across a restaurant in a small plaza down the back streets, so we tried it out. We had a salumi platter, and a artichoke & pecorino pizza. Both were excellent so we booked there for dinner.
By the time we got back to the Colosseum it was about 3:45pm. The last entry is at 3:30pm so we headed back to our hotel.
There were more locals at the restaurant (Vinando), who are usually smartly dressed. So for the first time on a trip I actually ironed a shirt and wore a jacket. Dinner was good. We ordered fried anchovies, ocoptus / potato / carrot salad (the hit of the meal, pasta (orecchiette with mussels) and main (grilled calamari). Lost in translation was that we were splitting the pasta and main so they came out at the same time.
We were very close to home (about a five minute walk) but made a couple wrong turns so it took a bit longer. Another good eating day in Rome!
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