To start off the day, we walked along Rome towards the Colosseum.
I love how you can be walking along, and there amidst modern day buildings are ancient day ruins.
Anya LOVED this.
The other kids thought it was cool and all, but they didn't really "grasp" it.
I was a pretty constant wet and dribble sort of day. I love how "done" with being wet, Hannah looks in this picture. With the magnificent Arch of Constantine in the back ground.
The Colosseum.
or Flavian Amphitheater
roughly 2000 years of magnificence.
Jack found something funny.
silly boy!
After walking past the Colosseum (we would tour that bad boy later), we headed over to Palatine Hill. We had read that the lines for tickets are much shorter there, and it is a combo ticket that includes the Colosseum. The line at the Colosseum was horrendous...so we decided to take this advice. Sure enough there was NO line at the Palatine, we walked right up to the ticket counter, and then right in to climb the hill of palaces. Bonus was, now that we had our tickets, there would be NO line waiting for anything the rest of the day!
Here, above, is the imperial Palace.
This is the ruins of the stadium on Palatine Hill. They couldn't just go across the street to the Colosseum, no, the people in this elite neighborhood needed their own stadium for their own entertainment.
Anya loved this day! They are studying ancient Rome in her Social Studies class. So she was throwing out little tidbits of information all day. She loved that she could touch so much history. Could she be like her mama?
Constantine's Basilica
This was not a church, but a mammoth hall of Justice.
Temple Romus
now used as a library for the Archeologists.
I found it interesting that these doors are the original doors...very unique to this area.
Temple of Saturn, Arch of Septimius Severus and the modern capital Hill in the background.
I loved the mix of Old and "new" that was all over.
Inside Julius Caesar's Temple. This is the spot where he was cremated after his assassination
The Column of Phocus
Oh Forum Hill this was the last monument. It was a last gift from the Byzantine Empire to a dwindling Rome. It was the symbolic ending of a great empire, a last nail in it's coffin (Rick Steve's)
The Temple of Saturn
This was the Forum's oldest temple, estimated at 497 b.c.
Basically this is where Rome's national treasury was kept.
Now we are back to the Colosseum.
After standing in NO lines, we are inside this great structure.
Anya is so HAPPY.
This was her favorite day by far.
This shows the maze of the underbelly of the Colosseum. That is where the gladiators were kept, along with whatever they were fighting. They were led through mazes of hallways until they came to the lift that would bring them up to the fighting arena. the partial wood floor is modern, built to give us an idea of what it would have looked like. Of course, back then it would have been across the whole arena.
The Arch of Constantine
This marks the victory of Constantine in the battle of the Milvian Bridge.
Basically this battle eventually led to legalized Christianity.
When a boy needs a bum change, he needs a bum change.
What better place then an ancient, roman, Column
Jack having fun in the puddles.
We could not get him to hold still.
He was a little blur the whole time!
One last shot of the Colosseum
This one shows the different columns used on each level.
Anya could tell us what each kind where and what they symbolized.
It was fun having our own personal tour guide!
That concludes our trip to Rome. It was fun, and packed with activities. I am sure we didn't uncover even half of Rome, but we saw all the things we had planned to see. So that was a success in our book!
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