When I was little, I was super interested in ancient history and archaeology. I guess it doesn’t come as any surprise then that the thing I was the most excited about in Rome, was to discover the Roman Forum, the Palatine Hill and the Colosseum. Despite a thunderstorm in the morning and more rain forecasted throughout the day, we headed out to explore.

Parts of the Roman Forum

A row of columns is all that remain of this building
Following the advice from the awesome receptionist at the guest house I stayed at (Mongolfiera Rooms) we bought our tickets from the Forum entrance instead of the Colosseum, saving us a few hours of standing in line – oh and there wasn’t even a line for the security check. This entrance leaves you in the middle of the Forum, an excellent place to start discovering.

Old meets new in Rome

The temple of Concord
The Roman Forum
The Roman Forum started out as a market place during the Roman Empire, and as the city expanded – ended up being the city center. It was where they would hold anything from public trials to gladiator matches. It was also the home to the most important temples, and the surrounding Palatine Hill housed some of the biggest and most luxurious villas.

It is impressive how so many details are still intact!

Some places you cannot see what is what
While walking around some structures really stood out for me. The first one was the Temple of Antonius and Faustina at the entrance to the forum. The building was built in 161 AD and is still mostly intact today! Just as we got to the temple, the sun came out, making it an even more impressive sight. Looking at this building, seeing the size and how it is still mostly here, you really get a feel for how massive some of these buildings must have been!

Temple of Antonius and Faustina

The Temple of Antonius and Faustina and the Temple of the Dioscuri
I also really liked the Arch of Septimus Severus, with many of the reliefs still visible today. This is another of the structures that is still more or less intact. What makes this arch even more impressive are its surroundings. Located on the north side of the Forum you can see the massive buildings of the Capitoline Hill in the background as well as the remnants of the temples of Saturn and Concord off to the side.

The north corner with the Arch of Septimus Severus

The Arch of Septimus Severus
The last place in the forum that really impressed me was the House of Vestals, originally the home of the Vestal Virgins – priestesses of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth. Their main task was to keep a sacred fire burning in the adjoining Temple of Vesta. Today all that remains of this house is a large courtyard with beautiful statues on the sides and small ponds in the middle. You have to walk up a small staircase to get here, and it really does feel like you are entering someones house or courtyard.

The House of Vestals

A statue of a Vestal Virgin
Palatine Hill
Just as we started walking up to Palatine Hill it started raining, not too much initially but by the time we had made it up to the viewpoint the sky had properly opened up. While my parents sought shelter under a tree I braved the weather, used my umbrella to keep my camera dry and got some awesome shots.

Then then the rain came

View from Palatine Hill
Eventually it seemed like the weather had died down a little, even if we saw some really dark clouds in the distance. Walking between all the puddles we headed over to the ruins of the old mansions on Palatine Hill, hoping to see these before any more rain could get us. Oh how we were wrong! As soon as I managed to jump over a puddle and ran off to take a few pictures of the mansions it started raining even harder. Luckily it did not rain for long and we managed to explore some of the ruins in relative dryness.

Impressive court yard, and scary looking clouds

A small break from the rain
Colosseum
A main entertainment center during the Roman Empire, Colosseum is one of the big icons of Rome today – This means that the lines are long! As we had purchased our tickets at the Forum already (same ticket for all three sites), we only had to do the line for security, which was not too bad. Even if we were there in the middle of winter, there were still a lot of people and at times it felt like you were walking in a line along with everyone else.

Colosseum in the rain

Part of the line to get in to the Colosseum
The most impressive thing was of course the ruins themselves, with the different levels on the sides and the structures in the middle. You could almost feel the amount of history contained in this place! In one of the lower viewing platforms you can get a closer look at what used to be corridors and cells underneath the stadium, which was really interesting to see.

So many things to see and photograph

The Colosseum was super impressive!
A somewhat unexpected aspect of walking around the Colosseum is all views of the outside you can see through the arches. Some will show you ancient ruins, while others will give you a view of the more modern parts of the city – and the arches frame them so well! At one point I am sure I spent more time looking towards the outside of the Colosseum than the inside.

One of the many amazing viewpoints in the Colosseum

Arch of Constantine
This was easily my favorite part of my trip to Rome. Before the trip it was the Colosseum which was the main reason for my excitement, but I must admit that the Forum actually impressed me the most. I was also glad I visited in the low season as I cannot begin to imagine the crowds in the midst of summer.
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