From Palatine Hill to the Roman Forum
May. 26th, 2025 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerItaly Travelog #9
Rome - Sunday, 25 May 2025, 3pm
Our tour guide left us atop the Palatine Hill overlooking the Roman Forum. We were a little miffed about that. For one, we felt like our tour guide was "timing us out" 2.5 hours into what was supposed to be a 3 hour tour. The guide arrived 15 minutes late, and the organizer assured us multiple times that timing would be a problem. "He'll stay with you as long as you need," the guy assured us. Bzzt! That carriage turned into a pumpking right on schedule, nevermind that it rolled up 15 minutes late to the ball. And two, the guide left us as we were overlooking a history-rich area we would have loved to have an knowledgeable person guide us through, the Roman Forum.
Oh, and three, we weren't sure how to get down off the hill into the area below.
Well, the power of the Internet in our pockets helped with that. We doubled back toward the Colosseum, which you can see in the distance in the next photo.
Fortunately we didn't have to go as far back as the Colosseum, just maybe 1/4 that distance. Then down the steps. Lots of steps.
It's kind of funny but for years when I've heard "Roman Forum" I've thought of a political forum; as in, this is the place where Rome's senators met to discuss lawmaking. Bzzt! It's was more like Main Street, USA... except for being Main Street, SPQR. In the photo above you can see the remnants of some of the temples and public memorials erected in ancient times.
This building (above) looked pretty cool. It's one of several temples in the forum. This one's not to a god, though, but to Antoninus and Faustina, an emperor and his wife. It was dedicated by the Roman Senate in 161 CE. Later it was turned into a Catholic church, after the facade was stolen— by the Catholic church, to pretty up another Catholic church. The brick steps would've been put in a few hundred years ago to replace stone steps they stole.
As we walked down the Via Sacra of the Roman Forum one other thing that was interesting was the Palatine Hill itself. A lot is built into the side of it. And you can see people standing on a viewing platform at the top. That's where we were when our guide pumpkined out on us and where I made the first two photos in this journal entry.
Rome - Sunday, 25 May 2025, 3pm
Our tour guide left us atop the Palatine Hill overlooking the Roman Forum. We were a little miffed about that. For one, we felt like our tour guide was "timing us out" 2.5 hours into what was supposed to be a 3 hour tour. The guide arrived 15 minutes late, and the organizer assured us multiple times that timing would be a problem. "He'll stay with you as long as you need," the guy assured us. Bzzt! That carriage turned into a pumpking right on schedule, nevermind that it rolled up 15 minutes late to the ball. And two, the guide left us as we were overlooking a history-rich area we would have loved to have an knowledgeable person guide us through, the Roman Forum.
Oh, and three, we weren't sure how to get down off the hill into the area below.
Well, the power of the Internet in our pockets helped with that. We doubled back toward the Colosseum, which you can see in the distance in the next photo.
Fortunately we didn't have to go as far back as the Colosseum, just maybe 1/4 that distance. Then down the steps. Lots of steps.
It's kind of funny but for years when I've heard "Roman Forum" I've thought of a political forum; as in, this is the place where Rome's senators met to discuss lawmaking. Bzzt! It's was more like Main Street, USA... except for being Main Street, SPQR. In the photo above you can see the remnants of some of the temples and public memorials erected in ancient times.
This building (above) looked pretty cool. It's one of several temples in the forum. This one's not to a god, though, but to Antoninus and Faustina, an emperor and his wife. It was dedicated by the Roman Senate in 161 CE. Later it was turned into a Catholic church, after the facade was stolen— by the Catholic church, to pretty up another Catholic church. The brick steps would've been put in a few hundred years ago to replace stone steps they stole.
As we walked down the Via Sacra of the Roman Forum one other thing that was interesting was the Palatine Hill itself. A lot is built into the side of it. And you can see people standing on a viewing platform at the top. That's where we were when our guide pumpkined out on us and where I made the first two photos in this journal entry.
