If It Was Today...

Missed It By That Much

Posted on November 10, 2025 by If It Was Today

Our last full day in Rome. There were a few housekeeping details to take care of, like tickets for the Fiumicino Express tomorrow and checking in for our flight. And of course, packing. But that still left time for an afternoon walk to enjoy the lovely weather that has been the norm throughout our trip. We considered various destinations, but in the end settled on a walk along the Via del Corso to the Piazza del Popolo, and the northern gate to Rome.

My attention was immediately drawn to the obelisk in the center of the piazza, so I focused on it when taking pictures. Jan thought the goal of the walk (other than enjoying the weather) was the northern gate. You can see the northern gate if you look closely, to the left of the obelisk, but that’s the best picture I have. Missed it by that much. But I do have closeup shots of the obelisk.

This is the Flaminio Obelisk which dates back to the reign of Rameses II around 1300 BC, and was stolen from Egypt by Augustus around 10 BC. If you have been following this blog, you may recall that I talked about seeing this obelisk a few days ago. I was wrong. That was a different obelisk. When Apple or Google say they can identify a landmark, they may be wide of the mark. We all “missed it by that much” in this case.

Here is another view from the piazza.

We took a different route back to the apartment. At one point we looked up and saw a rooftop garden. This reminded me of the last time we visited Rome over 20 years ago, when our hotel had a rooftop garden with views over the rooftops of Rome. This wasn’t the same garden, but I’m sure it would be lovely.

We were enjoying the walk back to the apartment, without any particular agenda, but as fate would have it, our path took us past the Spanish Steps, where we could see the obelisk that I mis-identified in my earlier post. This obelisk is actually the Sallustian Obelisk, which dates back to the second century AD, and was actually brought to Rome without any inscriptions, and then engraved with a copy of the engraving on the Flaminio Obelisk. Not a very good copy, but apparently good enough to fool me, and the AI platforms at Apple and Google. So when OpenAI gives you an answer, exercise due diligence.

We detoured to avoid the Trevi Fountain as we made our way home. The crowds at the Spanish Steps aren’t bad, but knew the Trevi Fountain was going to slow us down, and not in a good way. But along the way, Jan did spot a building with a very elaborate painted facade.

We made a brief stop for gelato (pretty easy to find that in Rome) and then spent a quiet final evening in Rome. I continued the Monday Beer Club tradition, while Jan enjoyed a glass of Abruzzo rose wine. And of course, I wrote about our day.

Tomorrow we fly home. It has been an amazing trip, but we’re looking forward to our own bed and our own kitchen. However, we’re not looking forward to the snow on our driveway. Fortunately we’ll be on the road again at the end of January for six weeks in New Zealand. No snow there…

Posted in Travel | Tagged Italy, Obelisk, Photography, Rome, Travel | Leave a comment

Roamin’ Holiday

Posted on November 9, 2025 by If It Was Today

We’ve been in Rome for over a week now. We’ve gone for long walks every day so we’re beginning to know our way around, and we don’t always have to rely on Google Maps. Of course, we end up seeing some sites (like the colosseum and the forum) many times, but that creates a sense of familiarity which is nice in its own way.

Today we decided to visit the flea market at Mercator di Porta Portese. We’ve visited flea markets before on our travels, and they are always fun. Nothing too serious, just an interesting window into the local culture. Today, our walk to the Trastevere district of Rome took us past some familiar sites, and a few new ones. One of the new ones was the Palazzo Senatorio, the seat of the Municipality of Rome since 1143, and the oldest municipal building in the world. Here is a side view from the colonnade.

Don’t forget to look up…

A detail in the ceiling of the colonnade

Here is a view we’ve seen most days, but this is the first time we’ve seen it with the sun at our backs. It highlights the amazing detail.

When we started walking this morning my first thought was “it’s way busier on the weekend than it is mid-week. But once again, if you get off the beaten track you are nearly alone exploring the city. But a word of warning … the cars drive much faster when you are away from the heavy tourist areas.

Before long we arrived at the flea market.

Entrance to Mercato di Porta Portese flea market

We didn’t exactly get an early start (we try to avoid early starts whenever possible – the idea is to enjoy yourself) so it was after noon by the time we reached the market. It closes at 2:00 pm so we thought the crowds would be thinning out. We were wrong.

We thought we could walk to the end of the market to see what was available before buying. We were wrong again. We walked through a kilometer of the market before we turned around. I thought we were almost at the end of the market … but I’d been thinking that for at least 15 minutes by the time we gave up.

On our way back through the market we made a few small purchases (more on that later) and then it was time for lunch. The Trastevere district is known for its food, so we headed to an area with several restaurants. We found one that looked promising, but it didn’t have any tables. Fortunately, there were other options, and before long we secured a table outdoors. We ordered seasonal specialities, both with fresh truffles. This was mine.

The outdoor seating area was busy and shortly after we arrived there was a queue for seats. Good timing. We also noticed that everyone around us was speaking Italian. Good sign. The food was delicious.

While waiting for our food we checked the weather at home. Storm warning, with 10 – 20 cm of snow expected later today. Knowing what we were “missing” at home made our walk back to our apartment all the more enjoyable. We once again crossed the oldest bridge in Rome … it has become one of our favourites.

I’ve written before about the excavations we see everywhere. This one caught our eye. The metal rings in the wall were perhaps to tie up horses, but why were there three in a triangle shape. If anyone knows, please do let me know.

On our way home we once again passed the “Wedding Cake”, but this time with a different perspective. The sky makes the statues look foreboding.

Walking along the forum I spotted something I hadn’t noticed before. The underside of these arches are reminiscent of the inside of The Pantheon.

We don’t buy much when we travel, and we certainly don’t want the usual souvenirs. But we enjoy cooking so we like buying good quality tea towels with traditional local themes and wooden spoons. If they are manufactured locally, we find it hard to resist. The spoon shown here is olive wood, and the tea towel is 100% linen, made in Tuscany. We bought the pasta cutter because I took pasta lessons in Abruzzo. It is made in Italy too.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Rome. We’ll likely just enjoy the lovely weather, and of course, pack.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Flea Market, Italy, Photography, Rome, Travel | 2 Comments

The Appian Way

Posted on November 8, 2025 by If It Was Today

The Appian Way was started in 312 BC as a military supply road during the Second Samnite War, but it quickly became an important route for trade and communications. Sections of the Appian Way still survive, some in their original state. Today we set out to walk one of the original, unimproved sections of the Appian Way.

Note the ruts worn into the stone from the countless carts traveling the road over centuries. The Appian Way was an important artery for Rome, and it is lined by many tombs of important dignitaries. Here is one that dates back to 30 BC.

Here is another building along the road. We included this because it offers an important reminder that life goes on. In a field beside the building, a group of young boys were playing football (soccer), oblivious to the history all around them.

Building beside the football (soccer) pitch

We were walking an original section of the Appian Way, but clearly there had been ongoing “roadworks” to maintain the road over the centuries. Some of these repairs appear to have taken advantage of local “rubble”and reused a piece of a broken column.

I’m a bit of a history buff, so it was special for me to be able to walk the road in quiet contemplation of the history beneath my feet.

There were buildings you could visit along the road, and one had a garden with flowers still in bloom.

Like everywhere else around Rome, there are so many pieces of ancient stone that have emerged from the earth and lie by the road waiting to be reassembled.

This next one is interesting because it was an old house that looks like it had random pieces of stone and pottery built into the wall. I have no idea what the reason was for this.

This next one appeals to my sense of humour. If I didn’t know better, I’d think this indicated an early WiFi hotspot.

Sure enough, as we were heading back home, we were treated to yet another view of a Rose-ringed Parakeet eating Magnolia seeds. This time you can actually see the ring around its neck.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Appian Way, Italy, Photography, Rome, Travel | 3 Comments

Another Day, Another Park

Posted on November 8, 2025 by If It Was Today

We decided to walk to the Botanical Garden of Rome today. It was a reasonable distance, just 39 minutes to walk there. Interestingly, taking a bus was 35 minutes, and driving wasn’t much better, at nearly 30 minutes. We always prefer to walk if it’s reasonable, but this was a no-brainer.

We’ve been walking around Rome for the past week, surprised by how much of the city is taken up by archaeological excavations. It gives you a sense of the tradeoff between preserving the past and living the present. Our route took us past the Basilica San Nicola in Carcere, which shows how this hasn’t always been the case. It was built at the beginning of the sixth century on the ruins of three earlier temples. The ruins were incorporated into the basilica, presumably to reduce cost by reusing the existing structure. You can clearly see the temple in the basilica walls.

Next we crossed the Pons Fabricius, the oldest bridge still in use in Rome, dating to 62 B.C. Another example of preserving the past, but in this case, it’s still in daily use as a pedestrian bridge.

From there it was a short walk to the botanical garden. The focus is on the plants, but they also display some of the many ruins discovered on the site, which creates an interesting effect.

We learned that four fountains of unknown origin were discovered on the site. The first we spotted was the smallest fountain I’ve ever seen. To get a sense of scale, note the leaves and the individual water drops.

This next cactus was very unusual. It looked a little like a brain.

It wasn’t high season, but there were still some flowers on the trees.

We had a bit of an adventure earlier in the week trying to see the parakeets flitting around the trees. They were noisy, but very shy. We finally managed to get a good look at them the other day, after much effort. But in the botanical garden, they were not shy at all. Every time we turned around, we seemed to see one … of five.

This tree reminded me of something from a haunted forest.

Another view of the Monk Parakeet, eating berries on the trees. They were everywhere.

More flowers.

Eventually we found the second fountain in the botanical garden. This is more like what I expected of a fountain.

We spotted this bush covered with berries that look a lot like haskap berries we get at home. We were surprised they hadn’t been eaten by the birds, leading us to wonder if they were poisonous. A bit of research revealed they are Myrtle berries, which aren’t related to haskap. They are also edible, though they are very tart. Maybe that’s why the birds haven’t eaten them.

Later we came across this in the bamboo section. I agree with the sentiment, but for the record, we did not carve this.

As I mentioned earlier, it was almost as if the parakeets were taunting us, making it easy to spot them after being so elusive earlier in the week. This was a Rose-ringed Parakeet, eating persimmon fruit.

One bad thing about the botanical garden was that it was on the side of a hill, which meant we had to climb a lot. We’ve had more than enough hills this week, so we would have preferred it to be flat. On the plus side, it offered views of Rome with hills in the background.

Here is Jan trying to get a better picture of the Rose-ringed parakeet feeding.

And here is the partially eaten persimmon.

And just to drive the point home, another shot of a Monk Parakeet in plain view.

T botanical garden was relatively sparse at this time of year, but it was still an oasis of calm forest quiet. It was a pleasant outing with renewing forest smells all around. When we finished, we headed back to the apartment for a brief rest before another visit to the vegan restaurant, Rifugio Romano, for dinner. Last time I tried the “3-D printed steak” so this time I wanted to try the “3-D printed salmon”.

The texture was good, if not perfect. The taste wasn’t identical to what you would expect from salmon, so it might not do well in a blind taste test. But if you set aside those expectations and rate it on its own merits, it was very good, the pepper corns adding just the right amount of zip. And the potatoes were divine. I highly recommend it if you are in the area.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Botanical Garden, Italy, Parakeet, Photography, Rome, Travel, Vegan | Leave a comment

On The Hunt

Posted on November 6, 2025 by If It Was Today

Our plan for today was to enjoy the Villa Borghese gardens. It was a comfortable half hour walk from our apartment, so we planned to walk both ways and look for anything of interest along the way, letting events unfold as they may. Oh, and look for a place to eat lunch.

The walk up was uneventful, other than spotting a lovely place for lunch. More about that later. The Villa Borghese gardens had been a private estate, but now it is a public park with free admission. This is just one of the many entrances to the park, the architecture highlighting its renaissance origins.

Earlier in the week we briefly spotted a green parakeet but utterly failed in our attempts to take a picture of it. Today, almost as soon as we entered the gardens, we spotted more of them, flitting between the trees and generally making a racket. I think they are very territorial. We saw them when they were flying, but their camouflage is nearly perfect – the moment they landed it was impossible to see them. And so the hunt began – we wanted a picture today. Note how “crowded” it was in the gardens.

Finally we managed to spot one feeding in the trees. These are the trees that grow pine nuts, so I suspect that is what they were after. They were like acrobats – half the time they were upside down in search of food.

With that mission accomplished, more or less, we continued enjoying our stroll in the park, listening to a saxophone in the distance.

While walking, a tree stump caught my eye. For context, this was at least six feet (two meters) high. The sun through the trees highlighted the red in the stump.

We didn’t really have an objective other than to enjoy the lovely day, but we were on the lookout for unusual things. Like this statue from World War I, with a donkey carrying a small cannon. Not what I was expecting.

Just behind the statue was a small museum beside a quiet courtyard with orange trees, laden with fruit. For the record, we didn’t pick any.

There is a small lake in the gardens where you can rent a boat. We passed on the boat, but enjoyed looking at the temple on an island in the lake. It is dedicated to Aesculapius, the God of Medicine.

And then, suddenly, we spotted the Rose-ringed Parakeets again. This time they were perched in the sun, in plain sight. This picture is dedicated to D & S who love birds.

We stopped for a cappuccino at a small cafe in the park, and then decided to make one final stop before lunch – a lookout over Rome. Apparently the view is stunning at sunset, but lunch was calling so we settled for this.

I mentioned earlier that we had spotted a Lebanese restaurant just outside the gardens, and we headed back to find it for lunch. We got lovely seats outdoors in the shade, and ordered a selection of Mezeh for lunch. Jan had baba ghanoush and fattoush salad. Both were among the best she has ever tasted. When I visited Jordan a decade ago, I discovered shankleesh, so when I saw the Lebanese restaurant I knew exactly what I wanted. And for those who may say that we shouldn’t eat Lebanese food in Rome … Lebanon was part of the Roman Empire. So there!

It was still early, so we took a little detour on our walk back to the apartment. We’d been told that the crowds were insane at the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps, so we decided to see for ourselves. Along the way we passed the Flaminio Obelisk, one of thirteen ancient obelisks in Rome. This one was Egyptian, dating back to 1300 BC and was brought to Rome by Augustus in 10 BC. It was rediscovered in the sixteenth century in fragments, and reassembled as you see it today.

And then, in the area beside the obelisk, along with all the tourist souvenirs, we spotted a stand selling garden seeds. Not your typical souvenir, but we were on the hunt for the chicory that is used to make puntarelle, so we had a look and … another success.

For a day that started without any particular objective, we were doing amazingly well.

Next it was onward to the Spanish Steps. We had heard there was an admission fee, but not today. There weren’t all that many people either.

Based on the limited crowds at the Spanish Steps, we decided to check out the Trevi Fountain next. When we turned the corner, our first view was encouraging.

But then we turned around and…

If you wanted to get right down to the edge of the fountain, you had to buy a ticket, but if you just wanted a look, it was free. So no Instagram photos from me, but you weren’t getting those anyway. I’ll close with a closeup of the detail above the fountain … because you know I love closeups.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Birds, Italy, Photography, Rome, Spanish Steps, Travel, Trevi Fountain | Leave a comment

Absolutely!

Posted on November 5, 2025 by If It Was Today

We took it easy today. We’ve been traveling for three weeks now, most of it with other people, and all of it in crowds. We’re introverts, so every now and then we need a day to recharge our batteries. Today was one of those days. So no photos of Roman ruins today.

I mentioned our dinner last night at the fish restaurant that friends had recommended, highlighting the atmosphere and the fish. But I said nothing about the salad, which was a highlight of the meal.

The salad was unusual … reminiscent of many things, but not readily identifiable. It was crisp, with a hint of bitterness, and reminded us of endive and celery, but it wasn’t quite any of those. We asked our server, and he said “chicory”. It didn’t look like any chicory we’d ever seen, but it was a start. In the grocery store today we looked for chicory without success, and then spotted this. It looks exactly like last night’s salad.

A bit of research confirmed it is a type of chicory, and that it is cut into thin strips and then soaked in water for an hour, to remove some of the bitterness and make it curl. Mystery solved. Now we just need to find it in Canada. Wish us luck.

As I was getting ready to write tonight, I poked my head out the window of our room to look for tonight’s super moon, and was treated to this.

Our major outing today was a walk through the park to the grocery store. Out of the blue, Jan asked “would you stay in the same place again?” Without a second’s hesitation I replied – “absolutely”. I hope to be back, and we’ll definitely stay in the same place.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Food, Italy, Photography, Rome, Travel | 2 Comments

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Posted on November 4, 2025 by If It Was Today

We both wanted to visit the forum when in Rome. I also wanted to visit the Palatine hill, one of the original seven hills of Rome. Neither of us were sure we wanted to visit the Colosseum (we’ve been before), but all the tickets we could find for the forum also included access to the colosseum. So we decided to get tickets for the works.

Every site warns you to book online to avoid long queues. We’ve seen many long lines in the past few days, so we agreed that booking online made sense. We were set to pay when our bank insisted on sending a text to my mobile number to verify the transaction. That would have incurred significant roaming charges, so we cancelled the booking and decided we’d take our chances.

Yesterday, one of the secondary gates to the forum didn’t have any queue at all. We thought maybe it would be the same today, and we were right. We requested our tickets, and were informed that … the tickets were free today. Apparently it is the Festivita Nazionale, the Italian equivalent of remembrance day. For once the bank’s extra security measures saved us money.

Tickets in hand, we had immediate entry to the forum. This shot was taken just as we entered the forum. Note the clear blue sky.

And here is another one from yesterday, taken just outside the forum. It is a statue of Caesar.

A lot of what you see in the forum has been “reassembled” from the broken pieces found during excavation. But it is still impressive to see how well it has held up after two thousand years.

Here you can see one of the pieces still on the ground. It actually gives you a better view of the egg-shaped pieces that are part of the carving in the previous picture.

There is so much to see that it is difficult to do it justice. Here is one of several triumphal arches. It’s easy to see where Napoleon got his ideas for The Arc de Triomphe.

Here is a view of the engraving on the inside of three arch.

In the renaissance era, the forum was buried and covered by palaces and gardens owned by the Farnese family. Much of that was lost because of the excavations, but some has remained. Here is an intriguing fountain.

It isn’t obvious from the previous photo, but if you zoom in on the ferns, you can see that the water trickles down through the plants.

After we climbed to the top of the palatine hill, we were treated to stunning views. This shows the scope of the forum excavations.

From this vantage, you can also see the colosseum.

You have a good view of the city from here, and we spotted a tower that definitely looked like it was leaning. Not as much as the famous one in Pisa, but still… definitely leaning. I did a bit of research, and sure enough the Torre delle Milizie is leaning as a result of an earthquake in 1348. You’ll also notice that the top is somewhat irregular. After the earthquake, the top two floors were demolished because of earthquake damage.

And here is a view that we see a lot when we travel. Me, taking pictures, pictures, and more pictures.

Jim taking pictures. He does that a lot.

One reason I wanted to visit the palatine hills was the green spaces we could see from the colosseum. Eventually we found quiet spaces we almost had to ourselves.

Jan spotted a bird that looked like a green parakeet so she took the opportunity to do a bit of research. Turns out there is parakeet found in Rome, although it isn’t originally native to here.

Our free tickets included access to the colosseum so after a brief rest, we headed over. Although we hadn’t originally planned to go inside, we were glad we did. As usual, we spent a lot of our time reading informative signs. For example, we learned that the stone is being cleaned (with pure water) to remove centuries of grime. This picture shows the before and after views.

One of the more interesting displays was a scale model of the colosseum constructed at the end of the eighteenth century. Fascinating.

And then, the real thing.

After our tour, we walked back to our hotel and passed an interesting tree. We saw it earlier in the week, and with a bit of research learned it is a strawberry tree, and that it has become a symbol of Italy. During Italian unification it was associated with the colours of the Italian flag: green leaves, red berries, and white flowers.

Strawberry tree, with the colosseum in the background

For dinner, we walked over to a local fish restaurant recommended by friends. It was packed, and an unpretentious experience – just good food. Note the rustic wine glasses. But the fish and the salad were both fabulous.

Another picture of me … amazingly, not talking or taking pictures

Posted in Travel | Tagged Colosseum, Fish, Italy, Photography, Rome, The Forum, Travel | 2 Comments

Roman Holiday

Posted on November 3, 2025 by If It Was Today

If you follow this blog at all, you know we aren’t ones to cram in “must-see” tourist sites when we travel. I’ll admit that we visit some iconic sites (witness Pompeii and Herculaneum) but we also enjoy days where we just wander around the city. Today was one of those days. Our nominal goal was to check out a restaurant that friends had recommended. But the real objective was to walk, and let events unfold as they may. I was mapping out the route to the restaurant, when I realized we would walk right past an Exhibition of Lego Brick Models. Can you guess what we did?

Just to provide some context here, the pink panther was at least six feet tall. A few days ago, our Saturday “random walk” took us through the Circus Maximus. Today we saw what it originally looked like … rendered in lego bricks. We’ll have to return to the Circus Maximus later this week to look at it again, now that we know what it looked like when it was new.

There were an unbelievable number of amazing models, but one that especially caught my eye was the scale model of modern Rome. Note that it took one person 600 hours to build this.

This last picture focuses on the area near our hotel … right outside the colosseum. The next Lego model is truly amazing – a model of the Millennial Falcon from Star Wars that was at least ten feet across. They didn’t tell us how long that one took.

After checking out the Lego models, we walked past the restaurant, then headed back home, stopping for gelato along the way, of course. Gelato is a pretty common thing to see/do in Rome. Equally common is to find newly excavated Roman ruins like this.

While I was drooling over the ruins, Jan was fortunately able to find something that interests her as much. She checked out a nearby fabric shop. She found the perfect fabric for a fun summer top, and later modeled it in her best Instagram pose. (We’ve been seeing a lot of those lately…)

By now the sun was beginning to set, and the moon to rise, giving us impressive views like these.

Here’s another perspective.

It was the golden hour and all the monuments were highlighted by the setting sum. Here was Trajan’s Column. I showed it in an earlier post, but I think it looks much more impressive in this light.

Here’s another view of the monuments, with the rising moon adding a nice touch.

One of the buildings currently under renovation near the Forum had a partial collapse today and the road along the Forum was blocked off, forcing us to take a roundabout path back to the apartment. Along the way I spotted this car, which reminded me of the Lego display we had just visited. To me, this looks like it could be a Lego car.

When we got back to the apartment we were hot and sweaty, and it was time for refreshments. Jan had Cerasuolo d’ Abruzzo, the rose wine we learned about (and learned to love) in Abruzzo. It was Monday, so it was time for Monday Beer Club for me. I had an IPA I spotted in the local store. In this case, the I in IPA stands for Italian. Very nice … and a little different.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Italy, Lego, Photography, Rome, Travel | 2 Comments

No Particular Place To Go

Posted on November 1, 2025 by If It Was Today

Saturday in Rome. No particular place to go. Friends who were here a few weeks ago were shocked at how busy Rome was. We were worried. They said all the major sites were packed with tourists, and you needed timed tickets for admission just about everywhere. So we decided we would just wander, going with the flow. More to the point, out of the flow. Our hotel is near the Colosseum so we immediately ran into the crowds we had been warned about.

Our tentative plan was to head west toward the Tiber, but it took us past the Pantheon. It is just as impressive as I remember.

But the crowds are not the same as I remember from twenty years ago.

One of Jan’s objectives for the day was to have a gelato in Rome. Amazingly, we found a lovely gelato place mere steps from the Pantheon, without a lineup. When in Rome, gelato is the perfect lunch, right?

As I said earlier, our main objective was to wander and look for things off the beaten track. We turned down an alley and found ourselves in a large space that looked like it might originally have been a “circus” … an oval race track. At one end was an impressive fountain. It isn’t the Trevi Fountain, but it’s still impressive and you can get close enough to see it. And you don’t have to pay a cent.

We kept heading west, crossed the Tiber, and before long we saw St. Peter’s. We kept going until we crossed the border to enter Vatican City. It’s a separate country, so that made our day an international walking tour.

We crossed the street in Vatican City, then headed back to Italy, walking south along the Tiber. By now, the crowds had thinned right out. But the architecture was still impressive. Jan pointed out one of the street lights along the river. It was far away from any tourist spot, and yet it was very ornate, and rather impressive.

An ordinary … but definitely not “ordinary” … street light in Rome

We walked along the Tiber, planning to see the Circus Maximus on our way back to our hotel. One of the bridges had a jazz ensemble playing in the middle of the bridge. It was the perfect soundtrack for the day. You can’t see the musicians in this picture, but trust me, we could hear them for quite a while.

Our next side quest was Isola Tibernia, a small island in the Tiber. On the eastern side of the island is Ponte Fabricio, the oldest bridge in continuous use in Rome. It dates back to 62 B.C. and is still used for pedestrian traffic.

At each end of the bridge is a pillar topped with a four headed statue of the god Janus. One look at the statue makes clear how old the bridge is.

Four-headed statue of the Roman god Janus

And then we arrived at the Circus Maximus. I’d argue that this should be a major tourist attraction in its own right, given how important it was in Roman history. But unlike the Colosseum or the Pantheon, we nearly had the place to ourselves.

The Circus Maximus runs right beside the Forum, and this gave us views of the ruins in the Forum. We still plan to go inside, but it’s impressive even from the outside.

Our route to the hotel took us past the Colosseum again.

After a rest and water, we decided to return to the same vegan restaurant we enjoyed last night. One of the menu items had caught my eye … “plant-based, 3-D printed steak”. The menu claimed you would be amazed, and I was curious enough to try it tonight.

It was good. Very good. Not the best steak I’ve ever had, but easily in the top five. I may have to return later this week to try their 3-D printed salmon. Stay tuned.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Circus Maximus, Italy, Photography, Rome, The Forum, The Pantheon, Travel | Leave a comment

Pompeii

Posted on October 31, 2025 by If It Was Today

After seeing the crowds on our trial run to Pompeii, we were thinking that perhaps seeing Herculaneum plus the wonderful exhibits in the Archaeological Museum would be enough. But Ian convinced us (or at least me) that it would be worth getting up early and catching the train to be at the gates to Pompeii when the site opened at 9:00 AM. There was already a lineup at 8:45, but Pompeii is a huge site and we quickly found ourselves ahead of the crowd. When we arrived in the forum, we literally had the place to ourselves.

When I asked Ian about the plan for the day, he said he just wanted to walk the streets of Pompeii. All of them. We didn’t achieve that objective, but we made a good start. One advantage of just walking the streets is that you see things that don’t make it into the guide books. For example, this street is something you rarely see in ancient Roman cities.

This is more typical of a Roman city – streets that are straight as an arrow.

The three large blocks in the road are for a crosswalk. The gaps allowed carts to pass through, but the raised stones allowed pedestrians to cross without having to step in the water and animal dung that would have littered the streets. Cool idea.

In the early days of excavation at Pompeii, many of the best frescos and tiles were removed to preserve them. Most of these are now housed in the Archaeological Museum in Naples, which we visited on Monday. But eventually they decided that wasn’t the best idea, and for a long time now they have been trying to preserve the best items in their original context. There are so many amazing things to see – far too many to show here, but I will try to give you a flavor of what you can see in the buildings in Pompeii.

Reliefs on the ceiling of the temple baths

Tiles in the entrance to a house – beware of dog…

You get the idea. They are stunning, but what we enjoy doing most is looking at the artifacts and trying to imagine what it would have been like to live and work in Pompeii. For example, this sidewalk had us wondering why it was so narrow.

One of the buildings was a bakery that handled all aspects of bread production from grinding the wheat into flour, mixing the dough, baking the loaves, and then selling them. The first picture shows the millstone, which would have had a small donkey walking in circles to rotate it.

Then the flour was mixed into dough in a small room to the left of the oven and formed into loaves which were passed through a slot to the left of the oven, where they would have been baked. It looks a lot like a modern wood-fired pizza oven.

And then the finished loaves were sold to the public at the front of the building. You can see the millstones in the back of this next picture.

There were many of these counters around Pompeii. Some were far more elaborate than the one in the bakery and included clay pots to hold cooked food.

One of the counters was partially broken and you could see the side of the clay pot that was set into the counter. It had writing on it – I’m guessing it was where it was made. Menae is a town in Sicily.

It was also interesting to see how the buildings had been repurposed over time. On this wall you can clearly see the outlines of arches, doors, and windows that had been filled in over time.

I mentioned in an earlier post about how the grooves at the entrance to the shops were used for sliding doors. We found one place that showed exactly how this worked. The next picture is a plaster cast of the remains of the doors found when they were excavating. It is a bit like vertical blinds with each of the vertical wooden slats being about six inches (15 cm) wide. When the door was open they would stack neatly against the wall. When the slats were closed, a bar on the inside would provide security.

We also learned that Pompeii had local elections, and we saw many political ads on the walls.

We didn’t have to work that one out by ourselves – there was a very helpful information stand.

You could also see sculptures inset into the walls, like this sign showing how amphorae of olive oil were carried.

And then we had this rather rude one…

Pompeii has an arena and two theaters that are beautifully preserved. This is the medium sized one, which is still used for live performances.

The stones on the streets of Pompeii are clearly original, but the sidewalks look like a recent addition. We were trying to figure out what the original ones looked like, and then we saw this. Looks like they were concrete with stones set into it.

Near the end of the day we were on a rise and were treated to a view that gives a hint of just how much there was to explore, if we truly wanted to walk every street.

At the end of the day we got together with Lisa and Dale, who are also in Italy and were with us at The Amazing Abruzzo. We ordered a lovely Napoli pizza on the outdoor patio … though shortly after this picture was taken it started to sprinkle rain and we moved inside.