What better place to start our little Roman adventure than with its very beginnings. We turned our walking tour on its head, simply because the nearest Metro stop was the Colosseo. Stepping out from the dark station tunnel to see the Colosseum (80 AD) in all its glory at close range was a heart-stopper. Also, the crowds weren’t too bad, all things considered! From the time we found the Roma Pass entry (near the tour groups) it took us about 10 minutes to get inside. Way to go! This wonderful structure, said to be capable of holding some 50,000 Roman citizens, is understandably, one of the city’s most popular sites. Nothing quite conjures up images of Sparticus, Ben Hur or even our boy, Russell (though he did make “Gladiator” in Morocco!) like this impressive stage setting. Here, gladiator fights, wild animal hunts and even naval battles (the floor was able to be flooded) were staged for blood-thirsting crowds; perhaps a precursor of London’s gin principle to keep the masses happy? Even so, it’s hard to imagine Trajan’s 117 day extravaganza featuring 9000 gladiators & 10,000 animals.
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| The bowels of the Colosseum were a hive of cells for storage, animals etc |
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| Capitoline Wolf with twins, Romulus & Remus |
From here,
it was only a short hop to the Roman Forum & Palatine Hill entry point (& ticket combined with the Colosseum). The Palatino is the seed that in 753 BC sprouted
Rome. Here, truth and legend mingle to
fashion the myth of twins Romulus and Remus.
Historians also believe the village may have grown due to its strategic
position along the salt road. Conquering
Etruscans further developed the site, transforming villages into a town and
constructing a citadel on the Capitol.
By the time of the Roman Republic, Palatine became the most sought-after
residential address for emperors and aristocrats. Its popularity continued for over 300
years.
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| The Roman Forum grounds looking up to the Capitoline Hill |
Given the
spread of the Palatine’s ruins, we limited our walk through the ruins to a
vantage point overlooking the Roman
Forum. The Forum is sited on what
once was a marshy hollow between the Palatine and the Capitol and began its
life as a humble place of trade (along with other things that such market
places attract). As the city grew, so
too did the Forum evolve to become the centre of ancient Rome - its ceremonial,
religious, political and commercial core.
It is here that the famous Vestal Virgins kept alive the eternal flame
at the heart of the “Eternal City”. To
quote one of my equally ancient guide books, the Forum’s “splendid fame runs
the entire history of Rome’s first thousand years”.
Having found
the tricky (and only?) Forum exit on Via dei Fori Imperiali, we staggered on
(in the heat & through crowds) to find ourselves in front of Il Vittoriano (1885), a vast & imposing
structure of blinding white marble celebrating Italy’s unification and to
honour its first king, Vittorio Emanuele II. In a city of “look-at-me” superlatives, this
just goes one, or perhaps twenty, steps too far.
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| Bernini's Medusa 1630's |
There were
far more than 20 steps up the Cordonata to Capitoline Hill. Thankfully, Santa Maria in Aracoeli** was
given over to a wedding, so we bypassed those extra steps and found ourselves
welcomed to Michelangelo’s redesign project (of the ancient citadel) by giant
statues, Castor & Pollux. They
pointed the way to the Capitoline Museum’s tidy café saving us from thirst
& hunger….
Then it was back to the Piazza del Campidoglio to take in ‘the
most beautiful piazza in Rome” before hitting the Capitoline Museum (the world’s oldest public museum since 1471)
with a big” wow” moment in every room. (This used up our Roma Pass second and final
entrance - on day 1…now we were nervous!)
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| A wall fresco depicting Hannibal |
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| Some of the truly monumental bits of sculpture in the courtyard |
We retraced
our steps back to the Metro, planning to stop for a refreshing ale along the
way. An imperious waiter waved us away
from the table we had chosen, pointing to a line of eager customers, who also watched
our every move. Given that there were 5
people waiting and at least 15 tables free, we wondered about the necessity for
a queue. We voted with our feet and made
it back to WJ3 where the beer was probably colder and certainly much cheaper…
**This 1250
AD church is said to be built on the spot where the Sibyl of Tibur announced
the coming of Christ to Augustus.
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