Finale of Our Roman Holiday

Today was our last big day of sightseeing in Rome, and in fact for the rest of our trip. Tomorrow we fly from the Rome airport to Paris, then we have a half day in Paris before flying home on Monday.

A couple miles south of our hotel is a cluster of Roman ruins including the Colosseum. We got a cab to Palatine Hill, the least visited of the ancient sites, and spent at least 2 hours wandering through what used to be the massive home to the Roman emperors. The road leading by this massive structure, the Via Sacra, or the Sacred Way, is still intact around Palatino (as the Italians call it). We followed this path up to the top of the hill where the most intact bulk of the ruined palace lays. Probably the most noteworthy part of this tour is that the home of Augustus Caesar (aka Octavian), can be toured... or at least the surviving parts of it.

There was not too much to see, but amazingly, some frescoes still remain although are not fully intact. Also of note is that the hut rumored to belong to Romulus, the founder of Rome, is also amongst these ruins. Supposedly in somewhat recent history, excavation of the area showed potential proof that Romulus did in fact exist and lived here. [In case you don't know the story, here are the cliff notes: Romulus and Remus were twin sons to a Vestal Virgin who was executed - for not being a Virgin - and were raised by a she-wolf until Romulus offed Remus and became the founder of Rome.]

We really took our time on the Palatine Hill. Apparently this is the least visited of the Roman ruins, which I find shocking based on its size, how intact it is, and that it has homes of two of the founders here. However, I was glad of the smaller crowds as it gave me a chance to experience a perfect moment - lemon and orange trees abound on the hill, and lemon blossoms are my favorite flowers due to their delicious scent (Ryan says they smell like Pez). So the intoxicating sent combined with perfect weather, a landscape of ruins, and the peacefulness of minimal people milling about - this is what travel is all about.

We moved on to the Roman Forum next. This used to be the hub of Rome: the Colosseum is just a stone's throw away, conquering Roman armies paraded through here before taking their plunder to the Temple of Saturn where the coffers were kept, the Senate resides next to temples of various deities... this area has got it all. Julius Caeser had a temple dedicated to him upon the spot he was assassinated. Diocletian, arguably the last Roman emperor, finished building a great arch called the Arch of Maxentius, started by the Emperor Maxentius, who was not Diocletian's predecessor, but his contemporary (both claimed the title Emperor, so they duked it out and Diocletan won - yet still left the arch named after Maxentius!). It is a pretty impressive area, but large tour groups and excessive amounts of scaffolding due to restoration and preservation efforts makes this a less enjoyable site than Paletino.

We decided to hold off on the Colosseum until a little later in the day when the crowds tend to die down. We instead headed over to the Capitoline Museum, where my main goal was to see the statue of the She-Wolf Suckling Romulus and Remus (see Ryan's photo). The statue itself is actually not that old (13th-14th century), but originally it was thought to be Etruscan (5th century BC). I'm actually more impressed that it was created during the Middle Ages, when something that might so easily be considered pagan would be sacrilege. We actually came to the museum in time for an interesting exhibit that I know my Dad will be a little jealous that we saw - the Vatican released many of their "secret" documents, dating back to at least the 6th century, if not older. The display was extremely well done - the original document would be protected under glass in perfect conditions, then next to the document was a multimedia display with detailed history in regards to that particular documents. There were dozens of these documents, ranging from the letter calling for the excommunication of Henry VIII, the minutes of the trial of Giordano Bruno, the notice of excommunication of Martin Luther (the Protestant, not King Jr.), the final letter written by Marie Antoinette, and a letter from Mary, Queen of Scots, written to the pope just prior to her execution stating she had done all she could for the church and asking that he pray for her. So many documents so rich in history, and we stumbled upon them in search for a wolf statue! Happy accident, indeed!

We headed back towards the Colosseum and, happy accident again, stumbled across Trajan's famous column and marketplace. Trajan was one of the greatest emperors of Rome (in my opinion) - he designed several of the buildings whose ruins still stand today and he believed in beautifying and maintaining the infrastructure of Rome. The column, which is viewable from the street (and a pretty amazing thing to just have standing there for all to see) covers all of Trajan's exploits and triumphs. The marketplace, also viewable from the streets, but also with elevated paths open to the public to see the ruins without walking amongst them and ruining them further, was just that - a marketplace. But don't be mislead by the simplicity of that term. This marketplace was more like a mall, with hundreds of vendors in permanent stone stalls, and government buildings nestled in between. Pretty impressive.

We ended our sightseeing with a stop at the Colosseum. I agree with the feedback we received from many other previous visitors to Rome - the Colosseum is much more impressive on the outside. However, by the time we arrived, most of the crowds had died down, and we had already bought a Roma pass that got us in at no charge, so we decided to check it out. I told Ryan that I think the Colosseum has been spoiled for us because we see it so often - travel shows, movies, etc. I'm still glad we had the experience of going inside, but if you are limited on time and want to avoid the crowds, just take photos of the easily accessible exterior and be content with that.

We returned to our hotel to wash off the grime of sightseeing among rubble all day, then went right across the street to the Osteria Capo del Case. Here we started with a wonderful gnocchi in cheese sauce (so good), and followed this with saltimbucco (veal in a lemon butter sauce) and chicken in a balsamic reduction and roast potatoes. We ended with tiramisu (I believe this is the first time I've had this in Italy) and I got in one more taste of their wonderful espresso (decaf, of course). A perfect day to finish our travels in Rome!