.........AND NOW FOR THE SERIOUS, MAJOR, BIG TIME ANCIENT RUINS!! THESE NEXT pictures we snapped are the well known, FAMOUS ruins which comprise the ROMAN FORUM, and just at the end of the Roman Forum, is the Colosseum. I spent many a day in my younger years here picking up wild stray kittens BORN & raised in the Forum, and getting BADLY scratched in the process!! TALK ABOUT VICIOUS!! I think the OLD cats that lounge around on cars in the city are the gentle ones!! (Well, for the most part!)

.........Claudio was proud to get his picture taken below with the handsome police officers, ("Carabinieri" in Italian) - because he has long DREAMED of being a policeman. He has even taken the official exam once, as passing it is a prerequisite for acceptance and training for the Police Dept. in Orlando, FL. We're all still hoping he'll reapply to take the exam again, when he has more time to pursue this ambition.
OH, that GOLD STATUE below on the street leading to the Colosseum is really a LIVE person inside, a "human statue" who is asking for money, but at least doing it in an original way, unlike the much more common beggars in Italy and elsewhere so often encountered.