Memories of Rome Part II

Hi! Hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend! Just to give you all a laugh, here's a pic of us in our costumes for the party we went to on Saturday night..it was an 80s and 90s TV theme. I'm Velma, the one with the gigantic glasses! My friend (Daphne) even made us a huge Scooby Doo foam board cut-out:)

And now let's continue our trip down memory lane with some more pics from Halloween 2008, which I totally boycotted in order to travel around Rome for 4 days with my sister! If you missed my first post, check it out here.

Today I'll show you Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum (which are both right next to the Colosseum and equally as impressive). We toured the Colosseum in the morning, and in the afternoon we walked up and around Palatine Hill. (We bought a joint ticket that allowed us access into both places).

Palatine Hill, an archaeological area, is one of the seven hills of Rome (the centermost) and one of the cities most ancient parts. On one side it looks down on the Roman Forum, and on the other, Circus Maximus (an ancient Roman chariot racing stadium and mass entertainment venue). Probably some of the first settlements of the city were here (ruins date back to 1000 BC), and later emperors and the rest of the ruling elite built their palaces here.



Perhaps the best part of Palatine Hill though is the view. It is lovely to slowly meander your way among the ruins, always keeping an eye out for what beautiful sites are in the distance or just down below.



Just in case you ever go - be careful, we almost didn't make it in because we got there late in the afternoon and they close the entrance gate an hour before they close the site (somewhere around sun set). At the end we were sort of rushed and aggressively herded out the exits (which meant we had to go to back to do the Forum the next day). But look at this gorgeous view of parts of the Forum and the city. So great to see everything at this special time of day, I love the lighting at sunset!




The Roman Forum (the valley of ruins at the base of Palatine Hill and behind Il Vittoriano and Capitoline Hill) is simply amazing. It was the heart of the ancient Roman civilization. The political and economic centre of Rome during the Republic. It was the central hub where everyone gathered for justice, faith, commerce and matters of the state.

Give yourself enough time to wander the Forum at your leisure. We actually ran into an American grad student studying in Rome who was walking around giving tours for free. We fell in with his group and learned a ton that we wouldn't have on our own.

{loved all the ornamentation, the gorgeous relief work and the detail that has survived for so long}

It is completely surreal to walk on the same stones that Julius Ceasar and his contemporaries did! Of course, it is always sworming with other tourists, but just try to ignore them...and instead imagine
yourself thousands of years ago coming to buy something at the marketplace here, worshipping at one of the temples, or listening to the latest public declaration.

{snapped a shot one night while we were walking by}

Thanks for letting me reminisce!