The Roman Forum

Breakfast on our one and only full day in Rome was taken in our hotel.  There is a large dining room where the food is but that is noisy as most people like to be in easy reach of the meats, cheeses, breads, eggs and pastries. We choose a quieter side room which we have all to ourselves and bring food back to our table. A waiter delivers our cappuccinos and double espressos.

After breakfast and almost ready for a morning walking in the Forum we have time for MORE COFFEE and so we walk to ....

As the Forum is too far away to walk in the heat we take a taxi from the Pantheon rank, first asking the driver how much the fare will be. 10 Euro is the answer and off we go!

The fare takes us where we want to go- a side entrance which will have us start in the middle of the vast space, rather than the busier entrance by the Colosseum. There are only 10 people in line for tickets here but we already have ours, printed at home in Chicago, so no waiting in line. Security officers search our bags. Mine is full of cameras.

We had a useful little book with us that showed us the Forum as it would have looked, overlaid on photos of how it looks today. It would be our guide and Carol was listening to a Rick Steves walking tour which would come in handy once we had walked to the southern end to begin following in his footsteps.

The Forum had just opened to visitors at 8.30 a.m so there were very few people around at this time.

Ancient brickwork

The remaining columns from the Temple of Castor and Pollux

People look down from the Palatine Hill viewing area

We have come to the southern end and will walk the entire length of the site. We begin at the Arch of Titus.

Sometimes I have to shoot over the heads of the other tourists to get a clean shot

We start walking with the Palatine Hill on our left

The Basilica of Maxentius on our right

Our eventual goal is to reach the top of the massive white building in the distance...so we keep walking

Here is that little book I was telling you about..

The Temple of Antonius and Faustina

The Temple of Vesta's remains

Now that more people are arriving as we have been here for over an hour we stop to catch our breath, find some shade and a restroom before carrying on with our walk. The bottled water we brought with us from the hotel is very necessary.  You can refill from the drinking fountains at the restrooms.

More to come....