Sunday 18 May: Gary and I go to ancient Rome

Gary and I spent this morning getting ready for our upcoming trip to the north of Italy. Once we were all packed and ready to go, we decided to head out to the main sites of ancient Rome. You know that I can never get enough of them, and Gary loves the heart of Rome too, so we crossed the river at Tiber Island, walked through the Portico of Octavia and past the Temple of Apollo and the Theater of Marcellus, then went around the Capitoline Hill and walked along Trajan’s Markets, the Imperial Fora, and the Forum Romanum. On Sundays the street is closed to traffic, and street performers, musicians, and vendors of every type covered the way.

Continuing along past the Forum, Gary and I then aimed for the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine. The huge bulk of the Colosseum glowed orange in the late afternoon sun; it was a great visual effect that we tried to capture on camera. We were hungry by now, so we went past the amphitheater and down a side street a few blocks to get away from the high-priced, tourist-oriented restaurants near the ancient center. We found a nice pizzeria on a side street and ordered a liter of the house white wine. Gary had lasagna and I had roast sausages with potatoes (quite tasty!). It was getting dark, and we had a long evening walk back to the Tiber along the Circus Maximus at dusk. The circus was the site of the chariot races, and in its heyday it was the largest public venue ever constructed, with seating for 350,000 people. That’s over a third of a million, or better than three Beaver Stadiums at maximum capacity! Several writers recorded that you could hear the roar of the crowd for miles outside of town. The emperor had a private box connected directly to the Imperial Palace so he and his retinue wouldn’t have to go outside. Not much remains of the Circus Maximus except a long, grassy valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills, but you can see how huge the area is. When pilgrims descended on Rome for the funeral of Pope John Paul II and election of Benedict XVI, over fifty thousand people camped here. Although it was dark, a few clouds on the horizon caught the last purple and crimson of the sun, and Gary and I each got a couple of good photos of the sunset on the circus. Crossing the river to Trastevere, we stopped in Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere (our piazza!) for a drink before bed. Tomorrow we leave for Florence!