Italy- Day 2, Rome

Our second day in Rome was all about the ancient centre of Rome- the forum.  On the way there we walked past the Trevi Fountain to try and see it before the busloads of coin throwing tourists blocked our view.  It is much larger than I expected- photos really do not do this incredible fountain justice.  It is sculpted to make it appear as though it is carved out of the same piece of stone that the building is made from, the transition between the building and the fountain is incredible.

Trevi Fountain

Fortunately we were organised and had pre-booked and printed tickets for the Forum (from the Italian tourism website you can get a ticket which covers the Forum, Palatine Hill and the Colosseum), which allowed us to skip straight past the 50 person deep line and straight into the forum.  Arriving in the first area is a bit overwhelming, there is so much to see but at the same time nothing to see.  The ruins of temples, parliament buildings, pillars and ornately decorated archways would not be much to see without some form of audio guide.  We did have one but unfortunately there were many detours along the path due to renovations so the guide did not match up with what we were looking at and made it difficult to really appreciate a lot of the ancient ruins.  It was still an incredible experience being right in the heart of world history.

Roman Forum

Arch of Septimus Severus, built in around 200AD to celebrate a Roman victory at war

Overlooking the forum is Palatine Hill which has ruins of the mansions belonging to Caesars among the gardens.  There was some great views over the forum and towards the Colosseum.

Palatine Hill

Our next stop was the San Pietro in Vincoli (St Paul in Chains) but unfortunately our visit was perfectly timed with its closure over lunch, so we ate some sandwiches while sitting on the stairs, and then it was off to the Colosseum.  Seeing the outline of the ancient ruins is exciting because it is such a recognisable image, and the inside is no letdown.  The complex structure of rooms beneath what would have been the arena was remarkable, even more so considering that it is still standing 2000 years later.

After stopping for a gelato and espresso, we walked to the Basilica di San Celemente, a 3 tiered building whose floors go down rather than up.  The levels get older as they go down, with the new ones having built on top of the previous ones, the oldest being from around 50AD.  It gave an interesting view of the architecture from different time periods, and the frescoed walls were also beautiful.

A few minutes further along the street was the Basilica di San Giovanni.  We went in from a side entrance and were blown away by how massive it was on the inside.  Exiting from the front, we had a great view of the main facade which matched the grandness of the inside.

Basilica di San Giovanni

Basilica di San Giovanni on the inside

At the reccommendation of a work friend, dinner was at a small restaurant on the main street down from the Vatican called Peccato Divino.  We weren't too sure at the start when it seemed that they did not want to seat us in the small upstairs dining room but they eventually took us to a table.  We are glad they did because the food was delicious and authentic.  We even got chatting with our waiter (despite his limited English) and found out that he used to work in a hotel just a few minutes walk away from our house in Amsterdam.  It was a great experience and well worth every euro.  After dinner was a relaxing walk along the edge of the Tiber and across the bridge back to our hotel.

Tiber at night