When do they feed the lions? and other Rome, Italy Things to Do Tips

We arrived at the Coliseum at lunch time and decided to have a picnic there. Having a bit of wine and food with the Coliseum in the background… you can’t get better than that.

Think of Rome and it's hard not to have a vision of the Coliseum pop into your mind. The proper name is actually the Flavian Amphitheater and was started by Titus in 71AD and finished by Domitian about 10 years later. What was most striking to me was the size of it. To think that it was able to hold 50,000 people almost 2,000 years ago is amazing. With its 80 entrances, it is believed that it could be emptied out within 15 minutes. For those of us who have visited any type of modern Coliseum, that is truly amazing.

At one point they were able to flood it and have boat battles, other times they staged gladiatorial games. Underground the floor was a series of elevators that were able to move animals quickly from their cages to above ground. The show was heavily choreographed and if the Emperor or the crowd did not like it, the stage manager could be executed.

The best seats were around the wall of the arena and were reserved for the Aristocrats; some even had their names engraved on their seats. The upper levels were for the slaves the rest of middle are was for the citizens of the empire. To help avoid the heat from the sun they were able to pull a canvas cover over the top. The complete mechanics of which is still unknown. On another note, there is no historical verification that Christians were ever killed there.

A typical “game” started with animal hunts and ordinary executions in the morning. In afternoon one could enjoy a feast of the recently animals killed in the hunt and watch the gladiator games After that the arena floor could be flooded for a sea battle re-enactment or some other special event. All of this was free and provided for by the elite to basically keep the city population off their back and make them forget their lot.

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Phone: Tel. 067004261
Address: Piazza del Colosseo - 00184 Roma - .
Directions: a few hundred yards from Piazza Venezia, and close to the Forums. On Sundays the motor traffic is forbidden and Via dei Fori Imperiali and the square of the Colosseum are available to bicycles and strollers.

The Trevi fountain is considered the most famous fountain in Rome (as my wife informed me when I neglected at first to put it on our viewing agenda). It was made more famous by the night-time wading of Anita Ekberg in "La dolce vita' and the movie Three Coins in a Fountain. After these movies it became the most popular fountain in Rome. The fountain is the end part of the Vergine aqueduct built by Agrippa, a general of Augustus, in 19 B.C. to bring the water coming from the Salone springs, 19 km away, to Rome. Legend has it that it was a young girl who showed Agrippa's thirsty soldiers where a large spring ran. This is illustrated in the fountain's upper panels. This fountain is the only one in Rome that has remained in use from the time of its construction to the present day. This is the aqueduct that supplies the water to the monumental fountains of the historic centre, from Piazza Navona to Piazza di Spagna

The fountain consists of four Corinthian columns surrounded by an attic with statues and a balustrade. A small-niche to the left contains the statue of Abundance , and above this is a relief depicting Agrippa approving the plans for the Aqueduct. The niche on the right contains the figure of Salubrity , with a relief above of the Virgin showing soldiers the Way.

The center niche is an imposing Neptune who firmly guides a chariot drawn by sea horses. As they gallop over the water, the horses are guided in their course by fine figures of tritons which emerge from the water and which were sculptured by P. Bracci in 1762.

The square there is smaller than I would have thought. It’s amazing how such a large fountain fits into such a tiny square. If you press your back against one of the shop windows opposite the fountain, you still can't fit the entire fountain into the viewfinder of your camera. Legend says that if you toss a coin over your shoulder into the Trevi Fountain it will assure your return to Rome one day, but like most thing in this world this is no longer allowed.

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Directions: From Via del Tritone enter Via della Stamperia, which leads to the Trevi Fountain

n 66 A.D. Jewish Zealots started a revolt against the Roman occupation of Judea. Titus captured Jerusalem in 70 A.D. with four legions. The last vestige of the Zealots fled to Masada causing the Roman to build a huge earth assault ramp to reach the top. Finally after 3 years the fortress was taken and the revolt was finally completely crushed.

In 79 A.D. Titus became emperor but died just two years late. He was deified by the Roman Senate and his son, emperor Domitian built the Arch of Titus that same year both to honor his father and to commemorate his victory in the Jewish War. The arch was dedicated in 85 A.D. with pomp and ceremony.

The 50 foot high arch is located at the Roman Forum, the arch stands close to the highest point of the Sacred Way (Sacra Via) which extends from here westwards to the Roman Forum. It is the oldest surviving example of a Roman arch.

At the inside of the arch are two panels with reliefs. One depicts the triumphal procession with the spoils taken from the Second Temple in Jerusalem: the Menorah; the silver trumpets and the Arc of the Covenant. The other one shows Titus in a chariot accompanied by the Goddess Victoria and the Goddess Roma.

The Latin writing on the top translates as: The Senate and People of Rome, to Divine Titus Vespasian Augustus, son of Divine Vespasian were originally in bronze. The reliefs were also colored and the arch was topped by a bronze a chariot drawn by four horses.

The outside faces of the piers are nineteenth-century restorations undertaken as far back as 1821 after demolition of the fortification in which the arch had been incorporated in the Middle Ages. The outer sides were rebuilt in travertine instead of marble, so they would be distinguishable from the original.

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Directions: Next to the Coliseum

The first view of the Roman Forum (Forum Romanum) reminded me of WWII pictures of Berlin after the bombings, but hey, the Germans rebuilt the bloody thing, why can’t the Italians??? ;) My biggest complaint was the lack of description and re-creation of what the remains represented.

The Roman Forum was the political and economical centre of Rome during the Republic. It emerged as such in the 7th century BCE and maintained this position well into the Imperial period.

The Forum Romanum suffered damage and destruction repeatedly. When political upheaval in republican times deteriorated into violence, the Forum would regularly be the scene of fierce fights between rivaling factions, often followed by destructive fires. Fire was always a problem in ancient Rome, and parts of the Forum burnt down several times, the worst fire being in 283 CE. Later the Forum suffered destruction and pillage at the hands of invaders. Most of the buildings on the Forum were destroyed completely in 410 CE, when the Ostrogoths of Alaric sacked the town. The temples, basilicas, and other monuments in the Forum were abandoned and looted. For hundreds of years, this continued until the site became known as Campo Vaccino (the Cow Field). In the 19th century, it became known as the Roman Forum again.

Archaeological excavations began in 18th century, but the site has only been excavated systematically in the 20th century. Many of the later additions to buildings and monuments have now been removed and the original street level has been restored over large parts of the Forum.

As you walk around the crumbling walls and the remnants of once magnificient columns there are some sites which give you a flavor of what the Forum looked like at its height.. Two triumphal arches stand at either end of the Via Sacra; the Arch of Titus from the direction of the Colosseum while the Arch of Septimus Severus, with its boastful friezes celebrating military power and domination, stands tall at the northern end.

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Directions: The Forum Romanum is located in a valley between the Capitoline Hill on the west, the Palatine Hill on the south, the Velia on the east and Quirinal Hill and the Esquiline Hill to the north.

We had just finished our adventure through the vestige of the Roman Forum and took the stair up past the Arch of Septimus Severus and wound up at Capitoline Hill. The Capitoline Hill is the smallest of Rome's seven hills, but it was the religious and political center of the city since its foundation more than 2500 years ago. Several important temples were built here: the Temple of Juno Moneta, the Temple of Virtus and the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maxims Capitolinus, the most important temple in ancient Rome. The hill and the temple of Jupiter in particular were the symbols of Rome as Caput Mundi, capital of the world.

During the middle ages, the site was in such bad shape that Pope Paul III Farnese commissioned Michelangelo to design a new square, and Michelangelo responded by designing a highly original piazza whose surface is covered by an intricate geometric pattern. He added a graceful ramp, known as the Cordonata, leading up to the piazza. He rebuilt the facade of the fortress built on the ruins of the Tabularum, a building that became the home of the Senate of Rome. He had the facade of the Palazzo dei Conservatori reworked and left plans for another building opposite, the Palazzo Nuovo, which was built in 1654 with a facade reflecting the Palazzo dei Conservatori.

Michelangelo’s piazza with the Senatorial Palace is seen in the picture. On the right is the Palazzo dei Conservatori courtyard where you'll find a number of ancient sculptures, including a giant head of the emperor Constantine from the basilica of Maxentius. There is also a dedicatory inscription from the Arch of Claudius that celebrates the emperor's conquest of Britain in 43 CE. Across the piazza the Palazzo Nuovo houses the Capitoline Museum which features a number of beautiful and famous ancient sculptures including the "Dying Gaul". At the centre of the piazza is an equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, which is a reproduction of the one that stood here for centuries only to be removed a decade ago for restoration and preservation

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As we were just walking around we sited a beautiful fountain sitting in the middle of the street without a large crowd surrounding it. It wasn’t in my guide book but later on ‘I found out it was the Fountain of Triton. It is a Baroque fountain made in Travertine by Gian Lorenzo Bernini around 1642., the fountain is without doubt one of the most beautiful in the city, especially for the naturalism with which the artist represented the sea monster, half man and half fish, seated on the valves of an open shell. The Triton has a powerful physical build and is shown blowing through a conch The base of this fountain is comprised of four dolphins. Also represented are papal symbols and bees--a specific heraldic symbol of the Barberini family. (Pope Urban VIII was from the Barberini family.)

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Directions: In the middle of the congested Piazza Barberini