Rome-Day three

Today I headed out to the Coliseum but was sidetracked by the Bioparco Zoo near our hotel. So instead I spent 2 ½ hours visiting all the animals from pigs and goats to elephants and giraffes, brown bears and pygmy hippos, eagles and vultures, Japanese macaque monkeys and apes. It was fun for me although it’s hard to see the animals’ captive, some of the them were rescued, like the four wolves, from poverty stricken zoos in Eastern Europe. This zoo seems to work with the World Wildlife Fund and takes in animals from all over that need rescuing. Later on the drive to the airport we circled the Coliseum and I was able to marvel at it’s magnificent size. Of course all I could think of at the time was Russell Crowe fighting the lions in Gladiator. I remember how the special effects people used computer generations to enhance the original coliseum into a functioning backdrop for the movie. It’s pretty impressive even in its ruin. Tonite we fly to Taormina, Sicily.