27 December 2003 The first stop this morning is one of my favourite things in Rome, and back into ancient Rome mode we must go. This is the Circus Maximus. Well, actually you can't really see it very well yet, but just wait. (Also notice, again, the Vittorio Emanuele monument in the distance.)  Utilising yet another map of Paul Bigot's model of ancient Rome we get a sense of what I am talking about. The green dot is where I stood to take the previous picture and the purple circle represents the Capitoline hill where the Vittorio Emanuele monument is located. Directly in front of me is what remains of the largest stadium of ancient times - the Circus Maximus.  It is an extremely difficult thing to convey in photos how huge this structure is. It is more than 650 metres long (six football fields) and 125 metres wide - built to accommodate 250.000 spectators for chariot races. Here you see an important tree and the ruins of the palaces of the Emperors on the Palatine hill in the background.  Well, not a REALLY important tree. Just important to orient ourselves again. As usual the green dot is where I stood to take the picture and the circled bit is where the tree stands today on the centre median of the Circus Maximus.  Stopping for a break on the centre median we watch as joggers run past us and other people out for a walk in the December sun. A circuit of the Circus would be equivalent to running one and a half kilometres.  Continuing toward the opposite end of the Circus we can look back toward the Captoline hill (and Vittorio Emanuele again) as well as the Palatine hill at the left. Underneath where I am standing are buried the remains of the seating of the Circus Maximus. In this photo you can start to get a sense of the arena as a whole, I think.  Looking directly across the Circus at the Palatine hill (and some gigantic tour group in a big long line).  A view of the opposite end of the chariot racing track.  Some of the ruins that are not buried in dirt and grass. This end would have formed the main entrance to the arena.  In ancient times this is what the ruins from the previous picture might have looked like. Just look at all that seating on the right side! Presumably the chariots would have entered the arena through the arch and to the cheering of a couple hundred thousand people.  Sitting in the lower stands at one end you would hardly be able to make out what was happening at the opposite end. In this case the seats up higher would probably have been better to see what was going on.  Ok. Enough Circus Maximus. We continue along toward the Colosseum and pass under what remains of an ancient aqueduct that supplied water to the Palatine hill and the residences of the Emperor that were located there.  Once again a purple line to show you where we've just walked. Starting at the first picture and ending just by the aqueduct where I took the previous photo.  Underneath the aqueduct I stop to buy some watercolour prints from a fellow on the street. This one is of the Trevi Fountain.  The Colosseum by night.  The Imperial Forum and Colosseum in the distance.  The Forum and Colosseum again.  An extra wide version of the Forum.  Trajan's Market.  And finally St Peter's Square and Basilica. Ok... moving right along then.  One of the best places to see ruins of ancient Rome (and views of the city) is on the Palatine hill. Entrance to the Colosseum includes entrance here within 24 hours (or vice-versa) but I didn't know that and had already thrown my Colosseum ticket out. Ten more Euros. Oh well. Here we see some more remnants of the aqueduct we saw outside on the street.  Unfortunately I don't really know what much of this stuff up here is, but the views are nice.  This is apparently the Circus of Domitian, whatever that means. I guess it was a theatre that Domitian had up here on the hill to have smaller scale contests and performances for parties or something like that. Maybe?  Lots of columns lying around huh?  Those Roman pines again. I just love those things.  And speaking of trees.... here's a cool picture.  The Circus Maximus as seen from the palaces of the Emperors.  A view along the curved face of the palatial residences.  In the model you can see the part that I just photographed. The curving façade, I mean.  This is a fantastic picture, I think. Sort of the old and the new. In the foreground are ancient columns from the Roman era and interspersed between in the distance are the domes of some of Rome's cathedrals, including St Peter's at the left.  A similar photo to the previous one, but not as cool. I liked how I took the other one to have the domes spaced between the columns in the foreground.  This must be a imperial cat since it's living up here on the Palatine hill.  Emperor Catius Maximus sits in the bushes.  A fantastic view across the Forum showing the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the Temple of Romulus.  Another view of the Forum with the Arch of Titus and the Colosseum behind the trees at the right.  Some pigeons sitting on the plants covering an ancient fountain.  This is the same fountain as seen a bit further back, but check out the blurry pigeon at the left flying away.  The Colosseum in the distance.  I was very excited about these rows of orange trees. I wanted to eat one, but thought better of it.  More orange trees. One would think that it would smell nice in a orange grove, but something was really stinky around there (and it wasn't me).  Now we're descending down the other side of the Palatine hill and back into the ruins of the Forum again.  Another view across the Forum with... you guessed it... the Vittorio Emanuele monument in the distance.  More of the wild cats of the Forum.  Wild cat in a tree.  More cats for all you cat lovers out there. (Narcissistic monsters...)  The Calico cat comes looking for some food. He was kind of scary though.  The wild cats of the Forum... just hanging out and keeping an eye on things.  Cats at top left and bottom right.  Man... that's a big gang of cats. What do they do all day?  Outside the Colosseum some tourists stop to get their picture taken with some pretend Roman legionnaires.  Here's another photo that I like. It shows a modern day metal street cover with the ancient ruins of the Colosseum in the background. Even today the manhole covers and implements of the infrastructure of the city of Rome are marked with the same designation that the banners and standards of Imperial Rome were - SPQR. SPQR stands for "Senatus Populusque Romanus" which means "The Senate and the People of Rome". Remember that I said that Rome was originally founded as a Republic? Hence the "Senate and the People".  Zipping across the city again in a taxi brings us to Piazza della Rotunda where we stop for a coffee and tostis. (At the bottom of this photo you can see a large stadium that was the Stadium of Domitian. This stadium was used for various things including the staging of naval battles by filling the floor of the structure up with water. Interestingly, in the present day this stadium has been converted into a large square called the Piazza Navona. However, at Christmas they pack the square with rides and carnival stuff so I didn't bother to go there on this trip.)  Here we see another plundered Egyptian obelisk as the centrepiece of the plaza's fountain. Good thing those Egyptians made so many of those things.  Piazza della Rotunda is home to the Pantheon and so as we sat there at the sidewalk café I took an artsy photo of a Coke glass and the Pantheon in the background.  Here we have a view of the entire piazza with the fountain and Pantheon in the background.  More artsy photography utilising water.  If you look closely at the inscription on the front of the Pantheon you will see that it reads (in part) "Agrippa". Now... think back to the Trevi Fountain and the fellow that built the aqueduct that supplied its water. He was one of the generals of Emperor Augustus named Agrippa. Anyway, it was believed for a long time that Agrippa was responsible for building this particular temple but in actual fact the structure as it stands now was actually built by Hadrian to replace the temple built by Agrippa when it was destroyed by fire. You might wonder why this particular ancient temple is in such good shape and the others are all ruins. Well, partially because it was lucky, I guess, as well as the fact that it was converted into a Christian church somewhere along the line and was therefore kept up instead of being allowed to decline into rubble.  Inside the building is an amazing sight as the dome stretches away above you. It is one of the largest domes ever constructed and at almost 45 metres across it is larger than the dome of St Peter's. The "eye" at the summit is 9 metres across (Think about THAT! NINE METRES!) and is completely open to the elements. When it rains the rain comes in and drains through the floor of the temple / church.  The Pantheon as it would have looked two thousand years ago.  In the late afternoon sun the Piazza's buildings take on a wonderful glow.  The quaint residences surrounding the Piazza della Rotunda.  Imagine living in one of these places. That would be pretty cool.  More zipping around brings us to Trevi Fountain once again.  This time the expected throngs of people are swarming around the fountain (as you can see). Also check out the Hotel Fontana at the right side. To those involved with Yugoslav War Crimes the Hotel Fontana has a vaguely sinister meaning, but that is a different hotel than this one. This particular one has a great location, just across from the fountain itself, and check out the room at the very top. That is the breakfast room of the hotel. What a great view, huh?  The Trevi Fountain as seen by day.  More zipping... (If you're wondering why we're skipping around it's because it is almost time to head for the airport for the flight back to Germany. Maxi's birthday is tomorrow and it's important to be back in time for her birthday breakfast.)  This is the column of Marcus Aurelius. Similar to the Trajan Column in that it has a series of depictions spiralling to the top that show the achievements of the Emperor.  What is interesting about the location of the Column of Marcus Aurelius is that it lies on a road that is known as Via del Corso in the present time. But as you can see in this model (with the red line) it was a road that's been around since ancient times and leads to the heart of Rome. I think that's pretty cool, but maybe that's just me. (Except that it leads directly to the Vittorio Emanuele monument these days and when you look along the street you can see its glaring whiteness from kilometres away. And because it's so big you get fooled as to how far away you are because it seems so big in your field of vision that you think that you are closer than you actually are.)  It's almost time to head to the airport but we continue our search to buy more pannetone before we leave. I liked this little side street with the church bell tower in the distance. Cool huh?  Here's a picture of the Italian national police - the Carabinieri (literally the carbine carriers). And just like the name says this particular officer is carrying a "carbine". A small assault rife, in this case.  With six pannetones in hand (each weighing a kilogram) we return to the hotel to catch a taxi to the train station. Our final view of Trajan's Forum and its resident cats.  This one looks like Maxi's cat Pepper.  Waiting for the cab I snap a picture of the back of Trajan's Market as seen from the front of our hotel.  Looking down the street we can see Trajan's Column between the buildings.  And that's it... a quick train ride brings us to Leonardo da Vinci International Airport.  The seats of Alitalia aeroplanes are disturbingly green.  See how disturbed I am?  Maxi is not disturbed at all. Perhaps it's the Business Class seating?  More lights of the Italian peninsula as seen from 10.000 metres.  More lights....  Leaving the shutter open for a few seconds with the lights creates a cool effect. (You have to amuse yourself in any way that you can when you're flying...)  In no time flat we're on a train heading North from Frankfurt toward Düsseldorf. I have some goulash soup and one of Deutsche Bahn's fantastic salads. I LOVE the salads on German trains and now you can see why.  Maxi's birthday is almost upon us and with some chocolate gateau and a toothpick with paper wrapped around it we can celebrate on the train. And that's it for Christmas and Rome, I guess. All that follows are miscellaneous photos. 
 
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