Day 10: Italy: The Old and the Very Old

As I mentioned before, Rome has a long history that sometimes is all cobbled together. Even the Roman Republic and Empire by themselves span over a thousand years. It's easy to find something from any time period somewhere in Rome.

This was the day we decided to see some of the more famous Roman monuments and ruins. As our hotel was in the middle of the city, it was pretty easy to walk to where we wanted to go. So, we headed towards the Forum Romano and the Colosseum.

One of the first things we saw was the monument to the first king of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II. This place had a ton of car traffic. We did walk up to the fence surrounding it, but we didn't tour it.




We visited Trajan's Forum, part of the Imperial forums, which is under excavation, including Trajan's Column, which has relief figures carved all the way up the side. These figures show the two wars that Trajan fought against the Dacians, who were a people who lived in part of the area that is now the Balkans and Romania.

They had a display showing the relief as if it was stretched out flat, and it ran the entire length of the forum itself. There were remains of pillars too, and according to Wikipedia, it's a home for feral cats, although I didn't see any.








We went next to the Forum Romanum itself, which required a ticket to get in. We had our Roma Passes, which got us in for free, and we began to explore the ruins. There are quite a few buildings in various states of repair. This place was a very important one in Roman culture and life, and its history spans nearly as long as the city itself.





We visited what used to be the Basilica of Maxentius, before it became the Basilica of Constantine, who finished the building of it.

We made our way down to a open area overlooking the Colosseum, providing a very excellent place to take pictures. Part of the wall is under restoration, but you can easily see the different periods and types of building used to construct it. We also saw the line to get in to tour the place, which was too long for our liking, so we never did go in to it.

It was also possible to see the Arc of Constantine, the only structure with a part of the original colored marble left. The monuments were not originally white, but decorated in lots of color. They also painted their statues.








After finishing our pictures, we left and then walked past the Colosseum through a large crowd of people. Passing by the arc, we then walked past the remains of the palaces on the Palatine Hill, overlooking the Circus Maximus.









We returned to the hotel via the metro, and then ate lunch at the restaurant across the street. Both Dick and I tried the lasagna, which was very good. I could have maybe even eaten more of it.

After lunch we took the B metro to the last stop, hoping to catch a bus to go to Tivoli, a town in the tall hills overlooking Rome. We were informed that we had gone one stop too far for our departure point, so we had to hop back on and go back a stop. After we arrived, we bought some tickets and then waited for the bus.

The bus was several minutes late, but eventually it arrived and we boarded. The interior was covered in graffiti and it wasn't air conditioned. I got a seat in the very back, and proceeded to nearly smother due to lack of air flow. The bus took about 45 minutes to get to our place, and it was really crowded by the time we arrived. We got off the bus a stop too late, and therefore had to walk a bit further.

We stopped for ice cream at a place somewhat close to our destination, and it was the best ice cream so far on the trip. After cooling off, we headed to the Villa d'Este, a Renaissance-era villa constructed for Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este. The decoration is a bit modest compared to the splendor of the basilicas, but there are a ton of really nice fountains and a great overlook of the surrounding valley.

They even rerouted a river to feed the fountains in this villa. There was a very large number of pools, fountains, statues, and figures all around the very large, multi-leveled garden. We spent at least two hours there and I don't think we got to see all of it. The mansion itself is in pretty good repair, although it's clear that the restoration is always a work in progress.

Pinocchio Mode

We returned to the same ice cream place on the way back to the bus area. It was hot and the ice cream was really appreciated. If we ever go back to Tivoli we will make sure that we stop at that place again.

We bought the ticket for the way back to Rome and after waiting about 15 minutes, the bus arrived. This one was not as full, was newer, nicer, had less graffiti, and had some mild form of air conditioning. Even better, the bus driver got on the highway this time, instead of stopping every 500 meters and driving through thick, dusty traffic. There was a great breeze coming in, and the ride back was much more pleasant.

After checking on Mom (who was still feeling very crappy), we promised to find a sports drink for her when we went out for supper. We found a small grocery store and found a 1.5 liter bottle for her.

For supper we went to a place in the Piazza S. Silvestro. I ordered a "medium" beer, and decided to take it anyway when the waitress told me that it was .8 liters of beer. I think she doubted that I'd drink that much. It still looked very large by the time I received it, and it was "just" a medium beer. I didn't ask how big the large was but I suppose I would need both hands to lift it.

I ordered penne pasta in salmon sauce, and that was, as usual, very good. It's a good thing that I don't live in Italy permanently, as I would probably have to exercise an hour a day to keep myself from gaining a bunch of weight. They eat so well there. I really can't wait to go eat there again.

We walked back to the hotel and called it a night.


Photos:

Imperial Forums

Forum Romanum

Colosseum and Arc of Constantine

Villa d'Este