The Roman Forum

The Roman Forum. (above left) The ruins of the Temple of Saturn. (right) A dedication to (if I've done my research right) Lucius Caesar in front of the ruins of the Basilica Aemilia, which dates to around 179 BC, give or take. At some point in time (410 AD) a massive fire started by Goths destroyed the Basilica, then the house of the money changers, and you can still find coins melted into the stones. I didn't see any, though not for lack of looking.


(left) The Temple of Antonius and Faustina - or at least the columned facade and the ceiling of the original pagan building. In the 7th century AD, a church was built inside. (center & right) The circular Temple of Vesta, right next to the famed House of the Vestal Virgins.


(left) The Temple of Romulus.

(right & below) The unfathomably massive Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine. The scale of this, the largest building in the Forum, is hard to imagine without laying eyes on it. Max started building this, but was deposed by Constantine, who finished it and slapped his name on it.

Below, Jen and Mark provide scale.

























(left) The sunny side of the Temple of Saturn. (right) The Arch of Septimus Severus - intricately carved to honor Septimus's victories in the Middle East in the 2nd century AD.















Ah, finally we come to it at last: the Cloaca Maxima, Rome's original sewer. You can still hear water running through it today, but it doesn't actually smell. But I bet it did back in the day!

(left) Again, Rome shows off its melding of antiquity & modernity - the columned ruins of the Temple of Vespasian with the backside of the modern Palazzo Senatorio built over the top of the 2085 year old Tabularium.

On the way out of the Forum, we passed through the Arch of Titus, exited out onto Via Sacra, the oldest road in Rome, and got a fantastic view of the sundrenched facade of the Colosseum. Overall, Rome was nothing like what I expected, and it surpassed all my expectations. I didn't find it to be the bustling, madhouse of a city, filled with gypsies and pickpockets that I had always heard about. In fact, it was quite the opposite and I didn't see a single gypsy in the 2 days we spent there. Often while at lunch or dinner out somewhere, we would find ourselves completely surrounded by locals - not an American in sight. That has never happened to me before. And I liked it.

We headed south to Napoli as a jumping off point for Pompeii & Sorrento the following morning.