Well after days of sniffing around the Forum I finally paid up and went in and spent the next 6 hours pottering around in there. I was trying out the iPad App that does this virtual thing of what it looked like in Roman days. It comes with you and uses your location to identify what you are looking at. Having said that it is limited and I also get sick of peering at my iPad so once I got the gist of it I abandoned it and went on my own imagination. Truth be told it is very hard to envisage what the Forum used to be like. It’s hard to convert piles of stone and marble that have been put back together in the C20 as a vibrant, active, commercial city centre. So the Forum left me a bit wanting so up I went to the Palatine Hill and that was a different matter. It is a lovely green and treed area with the ruins of the Dumus (Mansion/Palace) of Augustus and you really could imagine it as a living breathing place with it’s internal oval for races (chariot), its swimming pools and gardens and mazes and baths with ducted heating etc. It was great. The area also provides great views over the Circo Massimus (where the Ben Hur – type chariot races were held) and Colosseo and the rest of Roma. So a long and tiring day but good. My ticket is for 2 days in a row so tomorrow I’ll use it to go to the Colosseo so I can inform Rosa’s visit.
I spent the whole day in my new shoes which may have been a bit risky and I know you will be just hanging out to know how it went. First day of new shoes and all good!!! Somehow those Merrells seem to suit me.
This is a quicky…tomorrow I continue on my excursion into Ancient Rome!!