Last year we were in Rome for the first week of November and arbitrarily picked November 4th to visit the Forum. We were prepared to pay at the ticket booth but we were informed that this was National Unity Day, and tickets to the Forum were free. This year we’re also visiting Rome the first week of November and planned another visit to the Forum, so we made sure to schedule it for November 4th. Sure enough, admission was free again. We visited some of our favourite sites from last year, but we also saw many new areas. There is so much to see. I can’t show everything, but I’ll share a few pictures to give a sense of what you can see. First up, a bronze door that dates back to 307 A.D., and the lock still works. They don’t make them like they used to.

We often see pieces of marble lying on the ground in the Forum and around the city, but we’ve never seen them quite like this. The pieces of marble were neatly stacked and labeled “Historic pile of marbles”. Technically true, but open to misinterpretation. We loved it.

One of the pieces had been used as a game board. I wonder if anyone knows the rules.

Here are a collection of pictures of some of the buildings to give a small sense of walking around the forum.

The scale of some of the ruins is awe inspiring. If you look carefully, you can see people in the picture to provide a sense of scale.

Of course, we didn’t just walk around the Forum. We read every plaque and discussed what we were seeing. Some people believe we also count how many stones there are. Not true, but we do spend a lot of time pondering the meaning of what we see.

We found a museum inside the Forum, so of course we couldn’t resist. It was a building that had been constructed inside the temple of Venus and Roma. It contained many artifacts from excavations within the Forum, dating back to before the founding of Rome. It also provided information on how the site had been transformed over the millennia. After learning all this, we walked around the site, marveling at the beauty and the scale. Pictures don’t do justice to the scale, but here is one picture with a detail from one of the huge niches in the temple.

Then we headed up the Palatine hill to get a good view over the Forum. Along the way we passed a fountain where the water flows through ferns before dripping into the pool below.

On this trip I have been learning more about the site of Rome before the founding of Rome. During the excavations they have found evidence of an Iron Age settlement on the site, with post holes from a hut dating back to the 9th century B.C. According to Roman legend, this was the site of the original hut built by Romulus and Remus. Based on the archaeological evidence they believe the hut would have looked something like this.

When Augustus became emperor, he built his house in this area because of its significance to the founding of Rome. As Ian noted, even the ancient Romans loved ancient Roman ruins.

I’ll close with a shot of the local wildlife. The seagulls were watching us all day and finally one came up to say hi.

Tomorrow we are off to see the Vatican museums.