Rome Day 1: Ancient History 101

This is part 2 of my first day in Rome! We did A LOT, but I should be able to cover the rest of it here. While I was going over how I wanted to tell the story of my trip, it occurred to me that I do not intend to mention the food I ate at all. This is in stark contrast to Andrea, who remembers her trips in large part by the food she had. If you are looking for anything about the food I had while in Rome, prepare yourself for disappointment, because I did not have a single meal that blew me away on this trip, and therefore won't talk about it at all.

I also thought I should give an update. Remember that three legged cat I mentioned last post? Well I emailed the cat shelter that looks after those cats asking about her (yes it turned out to be a her). Her name is Spurianna. She is actually quite an old cat and has had many offers of adoption over her life. However, according to the shelter workers, she hates being handled by humans and she hates being indoors. Therefore, she can never be adopted. They also say that she loves going up to the gate, like she did with me, and stare at passers by and make them believe she is some sad creature. Crazy cat! I will still always remember her fondly.

Now that we got all of that out of the way, back to my day!

Yes I took this photo in the middle of the road while traffic was coming at me on the other side. Worth it.
This road was built by Mussolini in the 20th century supposedly because he wanted to be able to see the Colosseum from his office. Unfortunately, the awful person that he was, plowed right through the Imperial Forum in order to do it. This road daily causes huge damage to the precious archaeological sites around it, the most important in all of Italy and locations of the some of the most important events in the history of the world. There have been several movements calling for the road to be removed, but none have succeeded.

Many people don't realize, particularly with cities as old as Rome, the ground you walk around on today is not the same ground the people of the past did. Ground levels raise over time, and so to get to where the ancients actually stood you have to dig! So looking at the ruins that are in Rome, in many cases you are looking down into the earth. That was the case for the temples where Caesar was assassinated, and that is true for the Forum we visited on this day. (A mini lesson in archaeology for you all).
 It should be pointed out that what I am referring to as "The Imperial Forum" was actually a large space filled with many different buildings and is in fact made up of five forums built by different emperors. The ruins that remain were not all built and used at the same time. What you are looking at in these two photos is the "Basilica Ulpia" which was a civic building in the forum of the emperor Trajan. As you can see the base of the ancient ground level is a good 13 feet down from the modern city.
These homes were for the poorest of the poor. Before ancient Romans settled this area and made it the center of their city, it was a swamp. After they abandoned it, it became a swamp again. Therefore only poor people lived here until it was completely abandoned and turned into farm land in the 12th century. It wasn't until the 16th century, when the city began to expand again, that life returned here.


I don't really have anything to say about this photo other than I think it is really cool. It is right next to those houses I was just talking about. Say hello to Andrea! That is her standing in the corner.

Moving along down the Forum, we reach the forum of Augustus. I dislike Augustus! A lot! As an emperor he was actually amazing, by far one of the best Rome ever had. HOWEVER he is the bastard that invaded and conquered Egypt, destroying one of the most beautiful and spectacular civilizations the world has ever known. He also murdered Cleopatra, I don't care what the history books say. He killed her.

*ahem*. So this is his forum. A bit small really. Actually it is small compared to the others, and that is because he had to buy the land from private civilians. He did not want to appear overbearing, so he kept his forum small instead of buying more land from people in order to build a huge one. Whatever. He was still a jerk. There is a giant wall on the back to separate his forum from the poor neighborhood that was behind it.
After the temple was the Forum of Nerva. It housed a temple to the goddess Minerva (*cough ATHENA cough*), which was destroyed by a Pope. Typical. There is something that survived, two Colonnacce that support a big structure. This structure is unusual because it depicts activities of women such as weaving and other household tasks. It is odd that those things would be depicted in such a public and male dominated location. Above that is the image of a woman in armor. It is believed she is the representation of a conquered people.
Moving on we headed down the street and to the Colosseum! We did not go inside it on this day but I took some lovely pictures from the outside. I will wait to give you a history lesson about that until later.
Luckily is was gorgeous outside.

The ground around the Colosseum is special because, unlike the Forum, it is the exact level that it was in ancient times. The ground you walk on around the Colosseum is the same ground ancient people walked on. These stones below were laid before the Colosseum was even built! (Which was in 69 AD).
Oh dear. I feel like I came at you guys with A LOT of information. I did not want to do this, But I think I am going to have to split Day 1 up into three parts! I promise the other days won't be like this, but we literally did so much on that first day.

I guess I will end here. Next up is my first trip into the Vatican City! Stay tuned!