One of my favourite memories from our visit to Rome last year, was walking down Circus Maximus. The streets of Rome may have been crowded with tourists, but we almost had the place to ourselves in Circus Maximus.

I wanted to recreate the same experience this year. But when we arrived, we were greeted by this… Not at all what we were expecting.

The entire place had been taken over by the military with a mix of military equipment and recruiting for the branches of the armed forces. Since we were already there, we decided to (briefly) check it out. There were lots of drones and autonomous vehicles, showing their leading edge technology. But I like this picture showing a drone mounted on a vehicle, with ruins on the Palatine hills in the background. Old and new in the same picture … though both very militaristic.

There were also a selection of police cars available from Alfa Romeo and Maserati. Very cool police cars. Very fast police cars.

At one end of the Circus Maximus there are excavated ruins that you have to pay to see. Last year we passed, but this year we decided it was time to check them out. We think this picture shows the area under the stands. We spent a lot of time discussing why the arches had been sliced like this. Maybe for the seats but why had it then been bricked up. Who knows?

We had this sort of detailed discussion in front of every building and piece of marble. And we read every bit of information to help us figure things out. Here are two pictures that show how we operate when we explore. The first shows Jim and Ian deep in discussion about the ruins.

The second shows Jan looking on, slightly bemused.

By now it was time for lunch. The restaurant was near where we stayed last year, so we kept saying “I recognize this – I know where we are”. It was great fun. And after lunch … another museum, of course. We headed to the Capitoline Museum. There is so much to show…

I’ll start with the symbol of Rome – Romulus and Remus. This bronze statue is from the time of the Roman Republic.

Next, two friezes I found interesting. The first shows Hadrian, and is in amazing condition. It shows a horse drawn chariot, which seems appropriate, given our tour of the Circus Maximus this morning. The second is of a similar age and is … interesting. No idea what it is trying to tell us.

Jan found a room with samples of all the types of marble that were used in Rome from all over the empire. There were hundreds of examples, most taken from existing ruins. It was fascinating to see the huge variety of colours. It became quite fashionable for the collectors of the time to build cabinets to display stone samples.

There were so many ancient statues. So many. This is Boy With Thorn from the 1st to 3rd century BC.

This next one is amazing … and has an amazing back story. The bronze statue dates from the 4th or 5th century B.C. It was discovered in the 19th century when excavating a foundry from the late Roman or medieval period. It seems the statue was waiting to be melted down for scrap when the foundry was overtaken by events unknown, and the statue was saved for us to view today.

There is also a larger than life statue of Marcus Aurelius, dating from the time of his reign. It’s now in an enclosed room, but for 1800 years it stood outside in the elements. It held up rather well.

When we first entered the building, we saw a number of pieces of a colossal marble statue of Constantine. Using the dozen pieces of the original that have been found, along with various descriptions of the original, a replica of the statue has been created. It is, as you might expect … colossal.

I’ll finish our tour of the museum with a picture of a Cabinet of Curiosities, with finely carved details and including a range of marble. Very curious indeed!

There was so much more to see, but we finally cried “uncle” and headed back to the apartment – though Ian stayed on until closing time. On our way back, we came across a lovely fountain in a small piazza. You come across this type of thing all the time while wandering the city.

We love just wandering around cities, as long as they are interesting, and pedestrian friendly. Rome is perfect for that. And we’re getting to the point where we know our way around more and more of the city. We love it.

Tomorrow, the Forum, or the Ara Pacis museum, or maybe …