Roman Holiday I

My true love and I are on the third day of our vacation, chilling out for a bit before heading out to dinner.  At the risk of making a bit of a fool of myself, I don’t think we were prepared for just how magnificent the remains of Ancient Rome are.  

Yesterday for example, we were heading to the Forum when we were distracted by a huge archaeological site fronting Trajan’s Markets.  The markets are mentioned in some of the guidebooks but none of them prepare you for how impressive the massive four story building is, let alone the sprawling remains of the forum that stretched in front of it for about 300m towards The Forum.  But to get up close to the market, you have to walk down the Via Dei Fori Imperiali to the Via Alessandria and in the process you stumble on the magnificent Forum of Augustus.  This forum is centered on a temple dedicated to Mars, the god of war.  The steps to the temple are still there as are parts of the some of surrounding structures but the most striking feature are four soaring columns that have survived since they were built in 41 BCE.  The steps are fairly close to the Via Alessandria and when that sinks in, you realize more that half of the forum remains buried under contemporary roadways and that 2000 years ago, it reached out all the way to The Forum.

We never made it to The Forum that day, as the complex of the Forum of Peace, the Forum of Nerva, the Forum of Augustus, and especially Trajan’s Markets occupied our attention all day.  We did spend all day today at The Forum and the Palatine Hill and even then missed parts of both. We’re tempted to go back but there is still so much to see.

By the way, I think that one of the reasons that I was so fascinated by Trajan’s Markets is that was Rome’s first large scale food distribution market.  It was, if you will, the ancestor of Les Halles, Covent Gardens, Smithfield, Hunt’s Point, etc.