We had a leisurely morning and left for the ruins of Rome at about 10:30. We crossed over the Ponte Sisto bridge and headed for the Colosseum. We enjoyed the tree lined walk aside the Tiber River.
Along the way, we encountered additional ruins of interest. The first was Theater of Marcellus. It is an open-air theater that was built by Julius Caesar in 13 BC.
As we continued our walk, we came upon the Senatorial Palace with its piazza of statues.
As we walked to the street below, we passed an old prison which afforded nice views of its roof and other buildings in the area.
When we got to the lower street, we saw the Forum of Caesar. While only ruins, it was interesting to another “building” built by Julius Caesar; this one in 46 BC. The Forum was a temple built, in part, to honor him and Venus Genatrix (foundress of the family). It also had public shops in it.
From there we made our way to the Colosseum. It remains an impressive structure to us. It is amazing that it has survived since 80 AD when it was completed. We do think some of the scaffolding is the same that was in place in 2000 when we last visited. Who knows, maybe it was also there in 80 AD.
On our way to the Roman Forum, we happened upon Basilica di Santa Francesca Romana. It is a lovely place of worship with nice pieces of artwork.
We chose not to tour the Roman Forum as we had already walked quite a bit and were at our furthest point from home.
Next, we started our trek to the Trevi Fountain. We made a stop for water and happened upon some pasta in colors we hadn’t seen before, including black and white and what may have been Gryffindor school colors.
We walked down a road that had pedestrian entries to houses above us that created a pleasant view of the multiple bridges.
Surprising as this might be, we located a gelato shop along the way to the Trevi Fountain.
Trevi Fountain was a bit of a disappointment. First, the crowds there were ridiculous. Second, having water in the fountain would have gone a long way. The statuary, however, was nice.
We headed off to the Pantheon. We, again, found a church along the way. (It’s like they are everywhere … who knew? lol) This one is called Chiesa di Sant’Ignazio di Loyola. It was impressive as heck. They have a mirror set up when you arrive to be able to take a picture of the ceiling over the entry. This was a neat idea, but we chose not to do this. We did find a lot of other opportunities to take pictures, though.
When we arrived at the Pantheon, we wanted to get home and didn’t want to wait in a line that wrapped around the piazza.
We walked through the Jewish Ghetto on the way home. It is amazing to Dave the persecution that the Jews have gone through since well before the time of Christ.
We returned to the apartment around 15:00, having accumulated thirteen thousand steps! We were exhausted. Dave sat to go through the 150 pictures while Linda vegged in front of the fan, catching up on her laptop. She washed a load of clothes (the washer is located outside); then hung them up. Things dry really fast here, even inside. Electricity is expensive in Italy which is why they don’t use dryers. And the low humidity works well for them.
Realizing that the restaurant we wanted was another 30-minute walk and growing slightly of Italian food, we reconsidered. Dave suggested Mexican! Linda checked out top 5 Mexican restaurants in Trastevere and found one with good reviews that was 5 minutes away. Well, you know how long it takes us in the US to agree on decent Mexican … the best thing about this place was the salsa roja. That’s not surprising with how fresh and ripe the tomatoes are here. The tacos, fried perch for Linda and pork with habanero-citrus for Dave, were okay. The margaritas were a little lacking in flavor. Everything seemed salty. 😕
There was a bar near the apartment that we had eyed the night before so, decided to go there and write the blog. We each had an Aperol spritz (so popular here in Italy) then the waiter brought the special aperitivo (bruschetta, corn nuts, potato chips, bread with cured meat, olives!). We relaxed, wrote, and endured the smokers’ habits. Then it was time to return to do some packing.
Again, if you would like to see any of the pictures in more detail or a larger size, you can click here: 2022-09-19 Rome
2022 Italy Vacation 