Rome Day 2

 We woke up and stumbled our way around to eventually find the hole in the wall Basilica of St Peter in Chains (not St Peters of the Vatican) which I really wanted to see Michaelangelo's Moses / Tomb of Pope Julius the II (the "Warrior Pope). There was also a super hokey relic there which apparently is the main attraction but I didn't even both taking a photo of it. The Moses was really great to see in person - I wish we could see it a bit closer, even so it is something like 8 ft tall so we got a good look. The detail is hard to appreciate in a photo, but you could see muscles and features like those on a real person. The whole tomb area was very tall, maybe two stories with the pope's sarcophagus above Moses:

The light comes in at different angles throughout the day - apparently sunset is the best time, but the place is closed except for special occasions at that time.

We continued on and got a glimpse of the Colosseum which we'll be going inside in the early evening today:

Afterwards we saw the Roman Forum. No one really enjoyed it. The sun was hot, the place was crowded, and the normal route through it was detoured so it was a lot more walking than it should've been. It was still neat to see, but pretty forgettable except for a few things that were neat like the Triumphant Arches.

The Altar of the Fatherland / Vittorio Emmanuelle / Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was incredible though, the monument is massive. Finished in 1911 mostly. My wide angle lens makes it look smaller than it is, but I needed it to fit most of it in, we were standing at the base of it but didn't go in as we were tired. It must've been 200 ft tall and a few hundred feet wide and long. Basically celebrates the birth of the modern Italian state, among other things.

Finally we went back to the room, on the way stopped for Gelato. Pieter and I later went to the Capuchin Crypt, mentioned in a different post.