Traveling with Michelle: Ancient Rome

Near the forum

Saturday, 7 July, 2012

Well, today was a sore feet day. Anneliese and Shelby and I discussed feet: dead feet just don’t have any feeling in them, dying feet still feel the pain. We all have dying feet!

In this city with so much ancient history all over, the lack of importance placed on ancient walls, pillars, etc. is just weird. It is hard to get used to. In one area we walked last night, we saw some ancient walls and pillars--with just a fence around them. Further down the street was another pillar in the middle of the sidewalk. The sidewalk just went around it! In another country, there would be at minimum a plaque placed on it with brown signs pointing the way for tourists to find it. In Rome, it is simply taken for granted. Just part of the backdrop, like the souvenir shops.

One thing that is great about Italy (aside from all of the obvious things!), is the availability of water. When we were in Venice, I saw a public water spigot and asked Randy if he thought it was potable (drinkable). He said that the guidebooks all say that the public water from spigots is drinkable. So we filled up. They are all over Italy. Some have beautiful little carved shapes that they come out of, others have troughs underneath, some are just a spigot coming out of a wall. But all are for public water consumption. Great places to fill up the water bottles (we have at least three with us at all times). The water is sometimes better than tap water and is usually cold. Very refreshing. There are even a few in St. Peter’s square in front of the Basilica. Good way to combat dehydration and heat stroke as well as save money on bottled water. A little cool water on a hot day goes a long ways.

First today, we went to the Forum and Palantine Hill. Rome started out as an overnight stop on the salt road. The area had seven hills and the village was built between them. Then, the temples for deities began to be constructed on hills and houses and shops joined them. Eventually, the hills were moved for the growing city. Capitoline was the hill of the government and Palatine was another--I believe that might have been for the immigrants and plebs, but don’t quote me on it.

The forum is on the right

Enough of the history lesson, we went into the area of the forum, Palatine hill and the settlement around that area. Most of the ruins are here. Our ticket also included the Coliseum, where we planned to go next. We went to the forum first because the lines at the Coliseum are supposed to be unbelievably long and if you already have a ticket, you don’t need to wait in line. So, we waited in an extremely slow line at the forum--no shade. By the time we got our tickets, I had to go sit down because I was so dizzy.

Looking toward Palatine hill

But in we went and wow, cool ruins. It was hard to see where things were. Again, their signage is not very good. They have information placards here and there, but nothing is labeled. Even the forum was hard to make out. The house of the vestal virgins was labeled and that figured in a huge section in my book on Rome, so that was cool to see. The vestal virgins were (mostly) young women (virgins) who took over caring for the temple of Vesta and making sure that the fire did not go out. They made a lifelong pledge to care for the temple and to remain chaste. (I suppose someone had to do it!) They were considered sacred women, very elevated in society and no one sought to defile them.

Courtyard of the house of the vestal virgins

I would have loved more labels. Signs would direct you toward an area to see something, but then the thing was not labeled. We’re still not sure if what we saw was the Romulus and Remus hut that Joshua and I wanted to see. But, on to the coliseum.

Inside the coliseum

We got to sail past most of the line, we just had a small wait to go through the turnstile and we weren’t made to go through security either. Nice. The coliseum has a lot of interesting facts about when and where it was constructed and why. The Emperor Nero, had a large pool in front of his house. The subsequent emperor, can’t-remember-his-name, wanted the people to see him as supporting their needs, so he built the coliseum for recreation of the people and part of it covers the lake that Nero had created. It seated over 70,000 people. It is still pretty awe-inspiring, though there are few seats still left. You can see down in to the labyrinth of the area below the stage, though there is a bit of stage to show you where it was. I believe I read that it took 244 men to operate the winch to get the animal cages up for the animals to enter the arena. I read that the word “arena” means sand in Latin. The coliseum was built in sand. I also read an interesting bit (the children had already learned this) that the lower level was flooded out sometimes and ships were built there for plays and shows about water battles! Makes the Guthrie seem lacking!