The Grandeur of Ancient Rome

Our third day in Rome was all about ancient Rome. Rich's tour started at 9:00am and took us to Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum, the Arch of Constantine, and the Colosseum.

Palatine Hill is home to some amazing excavations of homes, palaces, and stadiums. There's so much history here; it's awesome to walk around and see remains of buildings that are well over 2000 years old.




The ticket for Palatine Hill also covers the Colosseum; we had the good fortune to go on a day when everything was free. We're still not really sure why - some sort of celebration, I guess - but that was definitely a bonus.

On the way to the Colosseum, we got a chance to take a look at a couple of the best-known Roman arches. The Arch of Titus:

And the Arch of Constantine:


After that, it was time to hit the Colosseum, arguably Italy's most recognizable attraction. And it doesn't disappoint. You get a real sense of how huge it is immediately when you walk in; it's like going into a football stadium, but then you realize that it's almost 2000 years old - that makes it a bit more impressive.



The Roman Forum was next up on our tour. The Forum was the heart and center of the city in ancient times. Now it mostly consists of a lot of ruins, although there some good stuff here, including the supposed site where Julius Caesar's body was burned and where Marc Antony gave his famous speech. Interesting stuff.


It's also home to another arch, the Arch of Septimius Severus:


With our tour with Rich ended, we walked around the Piazza Venetia area for a while but then decided to head back to the hotel for a little rest.

Later that day, we decided to head back to Palatine Hill (it was free after all - and we felt like we wanted to spend some more time there). Along the way there, we stopped by a few churches.

The beautiful Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore:

San Pietro in Vincoli, home of Michelangelo's Moses:

We went back into Palatine Hill, taking a few more pictures along the way.


After we had our fill, we made the long walk through the Circo Massimo to the Trastevere area and then on to Campo de' Fiori. It was there that we found a bar that had a free appetizer spread, so we had a couple of drinks there before dinner.

Our first true sit-down Italian restaurant dinner was this night. We were looking for a restaurant in one of our guide books, but didn't find it, so we chose a place on our walk back. After overcoming a little language trouble (our waiter was annoyed with me quite quickly), we had a decent meal, including Heather's favorite spaghetti carbonara.

But we weren't done yet - after dinner we went to the Colosseum and got some pretty good night pictures. A nice end to a long day.


To see all of our Rome pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.