I love being a tourist and visiting new places for the first time with my camera, but as I approached the Colosseum in Rome for the first time this is the view that greeted me. And this is what it was like all day every day and most of the time in the evening as well. I went back about six times whilst staying in Rome and only once had this area all to myself and that was at 6 in the morning. There are horse and karts for hire, locals dressed as Roman soldiers to pose for photographs (for a cost) and numerous merchants trying to sell gifts to tourists.