The Forum

Franco knew of a good vantage point to see the Forum from-a steep winding street with no parking so he let us off and arranged a meeting place further on. There were a number of pedestrians there already taking photos.

In this first one you can see, in the middle of the photo in the distance , the tower I had photographed earlier from the Palatine Hill....a long way away so we were right in not trying to walk the Forum today. We are returning to Rome this September to join another Princess Cruise ship sailing to Barcelona and so we will get to visit the Forum for as long as we want. Can't wait!

To meet Franco we had to walk through Michaelangelo Square-designed by the Genius himself.

Franco would be parked at the bottom of these steps

I was learning that in Rome no matter where you point your camera, there is something worthy taking a picture of. Carol has her camera ready too....

A 2,000 year old house. You don't find these in America!

Once we met Franco and had drank some cold water (have to stay hydrated!) I suggested we go to lunch as we were both very hungry by this time.

Next up- lunch before the Vatican Tour.

Palatine Hill

Once away from the Colosseum our plan was to visit the Palatine Hill and from there visit the Forum.
There was also a bathroom break scheduled for the entrance to the P.H.

On the way we would pass the Arch of Constantine.

We arrived at the entrance to the Palatine Hill. The restrooms are inside the gate and to the left. They are small so there may be a line to get in.

Once you climb up the steep steps to where the hill begins the path branches in two directions, left or right. We chose the right as this path leads towards the Forum.

When we saw a map of the area and saw how vast the Forum was we realized we would not have time to enjoy it today*. We had decided already that we would have to return to Rome someday as there are just too many monuments to see. We don't like to run through somewhere like this with our heads swiveling left and right. We need time to stop and study, to read about what we are seeing and spend time trying got imagine what this must have looked like 2,000 years ago. Next time!

* Tickets for the Colosseum also get you into the Forum

You can see the Circus Maximus at the bottom left of the drawing above.
here you can see HOHO (Hop On Hop Off) buses stopped by the hill.

These distinctive trees are Umbrella Pines and are trimmed to grow this way.

People standing on the various levels of the Colosseum will give you an idea of scale.

It was hot but up on the hill there was a soft breeze which helped. Walking was taken at a leisurely pace for the further we would walk towards the Forum the longer it would take to get back to the place we were meeting Franco-near the HOHO buses.

Here is one of the buildings in the beginning of the Forum.

I went on ahead, walking quickly and as we were up on a hill I caught some glimpses through the trees of the Forum and could see just how far it stretched. I walked quickly back to meet Carol and tell her it was time to go back to Franco as there was no point going down into the Forum today just to see 1% of it.

We retraced our steps and I called Franco to tell him we were on our way back to the car.

Franco was waiting with fresh bottles of ice cold water for us. Next stop-Circus Maximus!

Luckily there were some people down on the racetrack to give it scale.

250,000 people could be seated here along the steeply-banked sides

Chariot and horse racing drew big crowds

When we told Franco we didn't have time to see the Forum he said he could take us to a place where we could get a bird's eye view.....

That's where we'll go next!

Colosseum 2

One piece of advice if you are visiting the Colosseum with a friend-stay together as it's easy to lose sight of someone when you get separated as there are so many people moving about between you.

We are now on a lower level, one level above the  stadium floor. There are stairs between floors and we found at least one elevator.

The original stairs are unsafe by modern standards so are blocked off

We allowed ourselves one hour in the Colosseum as we had other places to visit, so we made our way towards the exit-there is only one exit and it is on the opposite side from where we entered. It is well signposted.

The area under the stage floor

We exited the Colosseum and were now planning to visit the Forum. Franco had arranged a meeting place close to the Forum and we had another hour or so at our disposal.

To be continued....