What a fantastic site - they are still discovering things as they dig, so basically the Forum and Palatine Hill are a working archaeological site - which also means that some areas are blocked off, for example today the Senate House was not accessible - we had to content ourselves with a picture of the statue of Caesar in front of the Senate House, taken from the street - would have loved to have gone inside….. There are so many wonderful things that it is hard to nominate just a few, but Caesar’s funeral pile and the vestal virgin’s temple were two good ones, as well as the Senate House (Curia) and of course the arches are spectacular…. It was great to get to get to the top of the Palatine and look down on the Circus Maximus where we were yesterday.. Severus made a circus in his place as well, just not as big. The huge arches we could see from the Circus Maximus were designed to extend the hill so that a wing of the palace could be built over the top of it…..
The Colosseum was as expected - huge! Again great to walk through all that history - it was used as a sporting arena for more than 500 years. Over the years it was then also used as a place of worship and low cost housing for squatters before being restored. Weird to think all that action happened on a wooden floor covered in sand…. It had little trapdoors that would pop open and let the animals in unexpectedly…. Very bizarre.
Wandered back to Piazza Navona for lunch - lovely setting but most expensive meal so far (75 Euro)….. Watched a group of students sitting in the Piazza drawing the church in the centre. Very relaxed way to spent the afternoon.
Spent the rest of the afternoon reading and then the obligatory drink at the pub before picking up a few things to take home for dinner - chicken and vegies for Graham, ham sandwich for me. Funny experience buying the tomatoes - Graham had them all in stitches laughing because we hadn’t got a ticket for how much they cost…….
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