Off to the Forum

Thursday 2nd November

Up to bright sunshine, ready to face a new day, lift to 6th floor and a breakfast table waiting in the corner and boy, what a view.

 

West towards the Vatican

               North towards Villa Borghese

 Palace Babernini - just over the road.

 

It was important (essential) that we get some washing done and we didn't want to waste valuable adventure time in a Laundromat so Mr Google found us a laundry only 3 stations away that would wash, dry and fold the whole lot for €14 (the hotel's prices started at €4 for a pair of socks!) and, it was only one stop from the Colosseum. So down to the tobacconist to buy our 72hr Roma Passes, on to a very crowded train within minutes, off at the Termini and a 5 min walk down the main road, crossed the road at a crossing holding a bag of washing each and clutching each other with the other hands tightly, in and out of the laundry within 5 minutes, short walk to another station for a one station trip, out into the sunshine and there was the Colosseum. Amazing! Our new Roma passes got us in quickly and then we just wandered, taking it all in, dodging the 'selfie fanatics' - where are the lions when you need them? and generally just enjoying the experience without needing to understand all the details of how things worked and what went on where. I found it hard to understand how they engineered and built a structure that seems as big as the MCG thousands of years ago. It was certainly good to see such an iconic building. A short walk and half hour wait because of security checks saw us in the valley which contains the ruins of the Roman Forum. Using Rick Steves self guided walk we very much enjoyed exploring and learning about this fascinating site, the centre of the Roman Empire. We finally left about 2pm, found a café for lunch and then decided to visit the Basilica of St Clemente which was quite nearby. I had cut an item out of the Age over 12 months ago and filed it under 'Rome' in case we ever visited, and I was glad I had. It was fascinating. Off the street you enter into a large, ornate Basilica which was built in the 12th century and is still very much in use. An archaeologist in the early 1900's discovered that the Basilica was actually built on top of an earlier church which had been built in the fourth century. It was fascinating to go down and walk around inside this very large building. It's columns had been used as foundations for the Bascilica above when it was built. There are still remains of friezes on some of the walls and other evidence of its use as a church.  But that's not all, there's more! Beneath this large church they found two more buildings dating back to the 1st century. One, a pagan Temple with a school room attached, and these were separated by a very narrow alley from a suite of rooms they think were probably part of the Roman Mint. Outside the wall of one room was a channel with clear spring water still running through it. We enjoyed our exploring and were quite surprised when we came out that it was almost dark. A quick walk, train ride, picked up the washing, another train ride, walk to the hotel to deposit washing, walk down street to Restaurant for Pizza, walk back to Spanish Step area to buy a new shoulder bag for Bruce, walk (limp) to hotel to finally lay down the head after another very full and satisfying day. I hope we can get up in the morning!