(Readers born too late to have watched Happy Days are furiously googling Fats Domino songs.)
After finally making our way hours later out of the Colosseum (Editor: It was NOT hours. Writer: Well, it seemed that way), we walked past Constantine's Arch toward Constantine's Heel.
(Editor: I can tell you are over the jet lag. Writer: The jokes write themselves.)
Up the hill we went to enter the combination of Palatine Hill and The Roman Forum. I had been to the Forum, but never Palatine Hill. It's nice that they now sell the two sites as a combination ticket, so we might as well gone to Palatine Hill.
After going through the ticket entry process, we turned left past the Arch of Titus to go up Palatine Hill. It's mostly rubble of a massive palace, but has the advantage of being relatively less crowded than the Forum.
The headless dude just above the
arch part of the Arch of Titus.
Since he's above the arch, his
name, Talaria (Latin for Ankle")
was given to the part of
the foot just above the
arch.
(Editor: You ought to be
ashamed. Writer: But, for
some reason, I'm not at all
ashamed. In fact I'm kind of
proud of myself.)
The Arch of Titus.
We headed up to the Imperial Palace but voted overwhelmingly to skip the museum.
The palace, built around AD 81 by Emperor Domitian, and spent centuries as the house of emperors. According to the Rick Steves book, a poet of the day described it as so grand that it "made Jupiter jealous." (The Roman god Jupiter, not the planet, although maybe?)
We walked over to the Stadium, a long sunken rec room for the emperors. There's an oval running track that was added later. There is some thought it had gardens and paths for strolling and meditating.
The Stadio. Which was used as
a stadium. Or a garden. Or a
hippodrome. No one knows for sure.
Umbrella cypress with
part of a remaining
wall. While the straight
and narrow cypresses
thrill people, I found these
umbrella cypresses to
be quite pleasing to
the eye.
From there, we walked through the ruins of the private rooms of the palace. Over the doorways the bricks in the walls were in the shape of an arch, which allowed walls to be built higher and stronger.
Looking down into the lower courtyard that highlights the remains of a large fountain. From there, we walked to the far edge of Palatine Hill, where we gazed down upon Circus Maximus, which will always hold fond memories for me.
Think Ben-Hur and chariot races going wild on this oblong course. The stadium was giant, and held 250,000 people (five times the spectator count for the Colosseum). The Roman Bleacher Creatures were famous for shouting the names of the chariot racers during the first race, with the racers dutifully acknowledging the crowd as they chanted each of their names.
(Editor: Wait a second, that sounds familiar. Writer: Yankee fans didn't come up with that on their own -- given the number of Italian-American Yankee fans, they're just carrying on an old family tradition.)
Roman columns and the dome of
St. Peter's Church (the Vatican)
from Palatine Hill.
The dirt track below is Circus Maximus.
Usually it's grass, but they must be
doing renovations.
From there we made our back to the front and down to the Forum, skipping a large chunk of the oldest part of Rome, including where Romulus and Remus set up their huts. Next time.
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