Returning to explore more of the Eternal City with two days jam packed full of ancient ruins and other awesome sights!
Back in Rome, Italy, once again, for my fourth visit! Rome is one of my favorite places to be in the world, if not my favorite. I adore all the layers of history here and all the art. My last visit was in December 2016, twelve full days of exploration. This time, however, was only 4 days (technically 3.5, stupid pre-Covid cold), plus a day trip out to Tivoli.
I will be sharing my visit to Rome in two parts; Part 1 will cover the first and second days and Part two will cover the third and fourth days.
I covered a lot of ground. Hope you keep up!
The day started at the Porta San Giovanni, in the ancient Aurelian Walls of the city, The gate was constructed (1574) in order to relieve congestion at the nearby old Ancient Roman gate, the Porta Asinaria (the towers). The arches on the side were opened up in 1926.
San Giovanni in Laterano, the cathedral of Rome. This is where the Pope technically has his Bishop of Rome See.
San Giovanni is one of my favorite churches in Rome. It has a bit of a hodge podge of different styles. It has beautiful white Baroque aisles, Renaissance frescoes, mosaics, etc.
Such a beautiful church.
San Giovanni has a beautiful cloister, the largest in Rome.
One thing that great about Rome is that you can find ruins of some kind around any corner, like this aqueduct hidden behind these buildings, near the Lateran.
The next stop was San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter in Chains), was built in the 5th century. You can obviously see they have remodeled since then.
San Pietro in Vincoli is famous for Michelangelo’s Moses, which was supposed to be a huge tomb for Pope Julius II, with over 40 statues to put placed in St. Peter’s Basilica. It never happened and we are left with this smaller tomb here in San Pietro in Vincoli.
The next stop was one of my favorite ruins, the Baths of Caracalla. They are just so awesome and cool! The baths were finished during the reign of Emperor Caracalla in 217 CE.
Fish and Triton trident mosaics, with a sea wave border. They have several examples of the mosaics that would have decorated the baths.
I love this room! The mosaic pattern is awesome and so complete!
The baths are very much in ruins, but you really can see how immense the building would have been. (Explore more of the Bath of Caracalla.)
The Baths of Caracalla are located on the road heading out of the ancient city. The road turns into the Via Appia, which was a major road into the city. The road was lined with tombs and fancy villas. There was also a racetrack, the Circus of Maxentius.
The furthest I went down the Via Appia was the Mausoleum of Caecilia Metela, a very large tomb built in the 1st century BCE for the daughter of an important Republican politician and member of the nobility. In the early 14th century, the Caetani family built a fortified camp (a castrum) around the tomb and turned the tomb into a defensive tower, with a castle keep. This allowed them to collect a toll on the road for traffic heading into Rome. In ancient times, the tomb would have only been a standalone marble structure with a flat roof. The fortifications are all medieval.
That was only a glimpse of what I saw on my first day in Rome. There was another church and lots more ruins and a bunch of cool buildings I spotted while walking. I also headed down to see the Catacombs of St. Callixtus. No pictures down there, so nothing to share. They are a bit different that the ones in Malta and Naples, much more cramped and packed in. Check out their website for more. I highly recommend the tour here. My guide was excellent.
Continuing onto Day 2 with more ruins! When in Rome…
Starting out the day at the Colosseum and Forum. Always start here first thing in the morning and pre-book your entry. The Colosseum is the busiest place in Rome, and they will stop people from entering if it gets too full, even if you have a ticket already. Why not start early and get it over with? If you have a ticket, you bypass the line!
Always get in line early; there will be one, but they start separating pass holders before opening. While waiting in line, you get to adore the Arch of Constantine though, so that kind of makes up for it.
Made it in. I’m amazed at it every time I visit. I am also amazing at how much stadium design has not changed since the Ancient Roman days. Tiers of seats with passageways underneath. Stairs connecting all the passageways to multiple exits. Those Romans really knew their stuff!
I was about to take a photo of the sub-floor of the Colosseum when this very photogenic gull flew at my head. He apparently wanted his photo taken.
I exited the Colosseum to this unexpected scene, hundreds of Santas on bikes. Apparently, this was a normal occurrence in December or something.
A better shot of the Colosseum, with a ton of Santas on the right side of the photo.
The entrance to the Ancient Roman Forum from the direction of the Colosseum takes right under the monumental Arch of Titus.
Instead of exploring the Forum first, I headed up to the Palatine Hill. One of the most famous landmarks is the Hippodrome Garden of Domitian (Stadio Palatino).
Part of the ruins of the Domus Severiana on the Palatine Hill. (Click here for a great image of the palace on the Palatine. You can really see how built up it was.) I like how the stairs have still survived.
The back of the Stadium Garden, or the Hippodrome Garden. It goes by many names.
The Palatine Hill basically ran out by the time of the construction of the Domus Severiana so it the hill was extended by giant brick arches, similar to those used by the Colosseum. Eventually, almost all the Palatine Hill was expanded like this all the way around.
A couple of rooms that were part of the Domus Augustana, which was actually part of the large Palace of Domitian (92 CE). I love all the niches.
A small hexagonal room. Pretty cool.
You can’t leave the Palatine Hill without taking in the views of Rome and taking more photos of photogenic gulls.
The Palatine Hill is also where you get the best view of the Ancient Forum.
The Forum was once the seat of government of Rome, both during the Republic and the Empire. The Forum grew piecemeal, a bit at a time. Parts were destroyed early on and then replaced, and some buildings survived from the earliest days of the Republic.
I took a meandering route down to the Forum and ended up in an area that I don’t remember being open before. That often happens in the Forum. They are constantly doing renovation work or archaeological digs here, blocking off access points. This street hugs the built-up Palatine Hill, just like we saw on the other side with the Domus Severiana. That may be why there is support buttressing over the road.
One of my favorite buildings in the Forum is the Temple of Romulus. Built in the 4th century, it was turned into a church, which has cool early Christian frescoes. It is now used by the Forum Complex as a small exhibition museum.
I think it there was a temporary exhibit in here, but I was really interested in these awesome early frescoes. I saw them back in 2011 during a rare opening before it was an exhibit space.
The famous, formally round Temple of Vesta.
I took a new exit out of the Forum; one I had never taken before. It led me out to the Forum of Trajan. Some columns remain of the buildings. Here you can get a pretty good look at the Market of Trajan, an excellent museum on the Forum of Rome. The market was basically the shopping mall of the day. It’s huge! They were still in the process of taking down an old wall and modern road that used to separate the market from the forum.
The Forum of Trajan is also home to the famous Column of Trajan! The column would have been flanked by libraries on both sides.
The Theater of Marcellus, built in the 1st century BCE, was used for a different kind of entertainment than the Colosseum, Greek drama and comedy. The theater held between 11,000 and 20,000 spectators in its prime. Then, it was used as a quarry after the 4th century CE, then as a fortress in the Early Middle Ages, and then, in the 16th century, it was turned into a palace, an interesting life for a two thousand plus year old building.
The last stop of a very long day was the beautiful Santa Maria in Trastevere.
So that was days one and two of four days in Rome. Even though this was my fourth visit to Rome, I was able to find something new to visit, the Catacombs of St. Callixtus and the Via Appia. (Honestly, there are a ton of things I haven’t seen yet.) In my next post, there will be a visit to the Vatican and more of what Rome is good at, churches.
Check out my next update where I will explore more of Rome. Lots of churches to see!
or
Check out my Wandering Rome series for more of Rome!
