Well, we're still on our first 24 hours in Rome.  We were seeing incredible sights and learning about amazing historical events that still impact us today.  How were the children, you may ask?  For the most part, they were fantastic.  They were mesmerized by the Colosseum - no problems there.   They were up for seeing Palatine hill, and were good sports about the fact that it was hot with no shade, very few toilets, and no signs to explain what we were seeing (actually, I think they liked that about Rome.  It meant that Tim and I couldn't stop every 5 seconds and demand that they read up on every statue and building they encountered).  We were on our feet all day and that was tiring for them - as it was for me and Tim - but they didn't complain excessively.
     But, they are kids, and, unlike Tim, they do not have infinite attention spans or miraculously constant blood sugar levels.  By the time we had made it through to the far end of the forum, Samuel and Imogen had started playing some form of 'tig', which led to both of them trying to touch the other one without being noticed.  We have a few pictures which we took of the forum, in which the 'tig' phenomenon also happened manifested itself - a manifestation which I did not notice until I was studying the pictures weeks later.

 

 
     So, increasingly both Samuel and Imogen had to be told off for fighting and annoying each other.  Then Abigail got told off - I don't even remember what it was about.  She started to protest and defend herself, and then seeing that it was no use arguing with her parents, she did the next best thing to stomping away from us in a huff:  withdrawing from us by hiding as much of her face as possible.

     By the time we had walked out the far gate of the forum - which looks like this ....

 .... and discovered that the forum continues on the other side of the road, so that when you go out of the gate and walk a few steps you see this ...

     .... it was way past lunchtime.  We kept promising the kids we would find the some food, but we couldn't find what looked like a decent place to eat.  So we kept walking and walking, trying to both sightsee and stop somewhere for food.  We ended up in the Jewish quarter, where historically Jews have lived for centuries.  It is a quaint part of Rome, with narrow, windy, quiet streets filled with all sorts of little shops and flats.  Here is a shop devoted to chilies - dried chilies, chili relishes, chili jams, etc:

     Other scenes from the Jewish quarter:

     One of the highlights from the Jewish quarter, for me and I think for all of us, was discovering a wonderful little artisan biscotti shop.  When you walk in, you are greeted by jars and jars of different kinds of homemade biscotti.  I can't remember many of the flavors now - chocolate orange, pistachio, oatmeal - but I think we picked about 10 flavors in all and they were all fabulous.  As we split the biscotti between us we never came across a flavor we didn't like.  We were all eating the biscotti and saying to one another 'Oh, taste mine, this is a good one'.    

 

 

     After we ate some pizza and the biscotti, and rested a bit in the quiet streets of the Jewish quarter, our energy levels were much higher and we were feeling ready to take on more hard-core sights of Rome. We headed up toward the Pantheon, passing probably 100 different historical places of interest on the way.  We found ourselves strolling through the part of Rome where Catholic priests can buy their robes - and it wasn't anywhere near Vatican city! 

 

 

 

     We got to the Pantheon.  Here is the view from the street, and from the porch:

 

 

 

 

     I had no idea that it was such an amazing feat of engineering!  It is famous because, among other things, there is a perfect hole in the middle of the roof.  Tim, our resident engineer, was truly stunned. 

     It was, of course, a Roman temple, so there would have been statues to the various gods in the different alcoves.  But after Christianity became the official religion in Rome, then the Pantheon was converted into a Christian church, with statues and paintings of Jesus and Mary and early Christian saints.  It seemed to be heavily stressed in our sight-seeing in Rome that if it wasn't for the Catholic church, most of the ancient Roman sights would have gone completely to ruin.  If there is no money to simply keep up a building for tourist purposes, then the building has to be used in order to be kept in good condition.  Turn an ancient sight into a church, and you have a reason to keep it up.  So, the interior now looks like this:

 

 

     Tim was also fascinated by the outside of the Pantheon:

 

 



     Then it was time to fulfill another life-long ambition: to eat gelato in Rome.  It just so happened that right across the street from the Pantheon was one of the most fabulous gelato shops in the whole of Rome; not that we knew that at the time - that only became clear to me over the course of the next few days as I never found gelato quite as good as this.

     Then we went off in search of the Trevi fountain.  Walking in the streets of Rome around 7pm can be rather tricky, as everyone you pass seems to be trying to sell you something.  If you show interest, they expect you to buy something and get quite rude if you decide not to buy anything.  We thought we had escaped all of that, and then we came across two men dressed in gladiators.  They saw us admiring their costumes, and immediately came over started posing for the camera:

 

 

     I thought it was all in good fun, but then they wanted money for their services.  Years ago Tim and I stopped carrying cash - not for safety reasons, but because we don't have alot of money, and having an empty wallet somehow helps us feel that we are being virtuous by not spending the money that is not in our wallet.  This is a bit of a fantasy, because really it just stops us from being able to pay for parking or doing other things that we actually need to do that require cash.  So, Tim had only about 3 spare euros on him, and these gladiators were asking for 10.   Actually, they were demanding 10.  It was a bit awkward, and they were not happy.  But somehow we escaped without them pulling out guns and making us go to the cashpoint.

     Finally we made it to the Trevi fountain.  A big, beautiful Baroque structure, it was surrounded by perhaps 75% of the tourists in Rome that day, but it was still worth seeing.

 

     It was near the end of a very long day.  Our feet were swollen, we had lived off of snack food and water, and we still had a long trek back to the hotel.  But the kids were still smiling.  I was very proud of them.







     After we saw the Colosseum, we were then directed by our tour guide to the Palatine Hill.  The Palatine was where the Emperors of Rome made their residence, from Augustus down to Septimius Severus.  From what I can understand it sounds as though most of the Emperors felt they had to build their own residence here, so there were lots of different palaces on this enormous hill.  Here is the entrance to the hill:

     When you go through this archway, you then climb up a fairly large hill, on the top of which is the remains of the many palaces.  The Palatine was important to Rome way before the Emperors took over it, however.  Apparently it was from the Palatine that Romulus, one of the founders of Rome, traced the outline of what would be the city of Rome. It then served as the seat of the kings of Rome, before Rome became a republic.  This is probably why the Emperors wanted it for themselves; they had to get in on the act and claim as many direct links as they could with pre-republican Rome.  I'm just guessing, though.
     The first sight you see is this magnificent racetrack, built especially for one of the emperors as his own racetrack, so that he could enjoy sporting events with just him and his buddies.

     And just facing the race track is this enormous ruin of a previous palace:

 

 

     We then preceded to go through Palatine Hill, but to be honest I was disappointed.  So much of it is in ruins that all you can see is the foundation stones of these old palaces. Here is an exception:  one of the walls of the monstrous 'receiving rooms' is still standing: 

 

 

     And there are no signs telling you anything about what you are seeing, which I think is criminal!  Apparently if there were signs, people would not need a tour guide, and there is a thriving tour guide business in Rome, so there you go.  We did have an excellent tour guide, however, so I'm not going to complain.  He was very funny; I even took a picture of him.

 

 

 

     So, after the enormity, but emptiness, of Palatine Hill, our guided tour was considered over and we were left to brave Rome's ancient forum by ourselves.  I have to say that seeing the Roman forum was one of the highlights of the trip for me.  There was something special about it; although it was in ruins I was fascinated by it and if you use your imagination a little bit you can really get a sense of what it might have been like 2,000 years ago.

     The forum is full of temples of different gods, and not only that, Rome itself lasted for so long that people would build temples upon temples.  There is still lots of excavation work going on, and the ground is at a much lower level than it was in late Rome because they have unearthed so many things.  Sometimes the entranceways to buildings will be 6 feet off the ground because that's where the ground level was when the building was erected.  So you get this sense of a place that must have been so busy, so bustling, so crowded, and yet also an evolving place.  Here is the gate by which you could enter the forum from the Colosseum side:

 

 

     And a few of the imposing temples:

 

 

     In the middle of the forum was the temple of the Vestal Virgins, who were priestesses who kept the 'eternal flame' of Rome burning at all times.  All that is left of that temple is these three white pillars:

 

 

 

     One thing that got me especially excited was the Rostra. This is where orators would stand and speak on political matters.  Candidates for office would come and speak here, as well as others.  Just think of it:  Cicero may have spoken here.

 

 

 

    Here are a few more 'panoramic' views of the forum:

 



 

 

    It was amazing to me that the people that came to this forum were the same ones who debated about the importance of a res publica and libertas.  Our ideas about law, liberty, and participation in the political process all started here, even, to an extent, in this very spot!  I found the whole of the forum to be nothing short of inspirational.