After staying up until the middle of the night before, studying to prepare, we woke up early to take a tour of the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and the Coliseum. We ran across the river, and jogged past the Circus Maximus on the hottest day of our trip (mid-nineties) to make our early departure time for the tour.
The Forum is an amazing experience. Nestled between Rome’s seven hills, on a hot busy day, teeming with tourists, we found ourselves transported. The bleached bones of the ruins, worn by wind and time, lay as they fell. The Republic’s great monuments now serve as its headstone. The forum still buzzes with laughing children running through the tall grass, the aged, walking gingerly over uneven rocks, and young couples lost in each other’s company; but there is a palpable sense of time in the forum- while we may not seem to change, we come and go, and the long march of time- time as measured in the life of stone- will see new families, new civilizations return to our fallen monuments.
When Rome fell into decline, the city was largely abandoned: Rome’s population dwindled to an estimated 19,000. The buildings of the forum were scavenged for materials, and eventually, the entire forum was buried, to serve as cow pasture. Ruins that poked up above the dirt were sawed off to allow for level ground for better farming. The forum
was not excavated until the 20th century.
The Palatine Hill was more or less shutdown that day, but we can report that it is hill-y.
The Coliseum is almost exactly what you expect, so if you have ever wanted to go, it is worth it, and if you have not wanted to go, you too can trust your instinct. You also probably already know all the interesting little details about it, from the elevators, retractable roof and flooded stage for sea battles, so there isn’t too much to report except the following: the reason it is in such poor repair is because it was pillaged over the years for materials. In times of war, the metal rods that connected the giant stones were excavated and used for weapons. The entire forum is pock-marked from metal scavenging, and you can stick your index finger in every hole and feel were a metal joint was removed. Eventually an earthquake hit, and the side from which the most metal was harvested collapsed.
After our tour we had a hearty lunch. On a previous trip to Rome, Chris was told by a professor that you know you are in an authentic Roman restaurant when the walls are painted pale yellow, and covered with bad art. Our lunch was at the quintessential authentic Roman restaurant, and we had an amazing lunch of melon and prosciutto, foie gras, and a particularly memorable pesto gnocchi.
We headed back to the apartment, where we spent a few hours hanging out on our balcony, chatting about our morning, and napping.
That night we returned to Roma Sparita, this time for pizza. We were not disappointed, and we spent a long night laughing, eating, and drinking house wine. Full, tired and a little sun burned, we turned in to rest up for day four.
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