Roman Forum & Palatine Hill

I woke up this morning after a good night’s sleep and reminded myself that I was in Rome. (You already knew that I’m in Rome if you read yesterday’s post, but I needed reminding on awakening.) And being in Rome I knew I had to go look at more old stuff. So I got out of bed and looked in the mirror.

Unhappy with what I saw, I decided to get dressed, have breakfast, and visit even older stuff.

I got a late start and meandered to my first stop, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, stopping along the way to peer at some of the old buildings and even older ruins that you can view from a distance for free. Then I had to queue for quite some time to buy tickets. As a result, my first stop was my only stop of the morning.

The Queue’s the Thing

I spent well over an hour in the ticket line. I was old when I started. I’m older now.

There are a few different ticket options. One gets you into just the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. (They are effectively one site, with no gates between them). Another option also provides entrance into the Colosseum. A third choice is like the second, but it buys you the Colosseum “full experience.”

The full experience allows you to go underground and up to the top of the Colosseum. Those areas are out of bounds to normal ticket holders. Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m not normal, and not in a good way. But it’s the normalcy of the ticket, not of me that is the determining factor. I’m glad we could clear that up.

I’ve been inside the Colosseum before, but not to the basement or top. I’m not sure, but I don’t think those areas were open to tourists the last time I was there. What the heck? I’m a full-experience type of guy (you can stop laughing any time). I asked for a full experience ticket.

Before he sold it to me, the ticket seller told me that my time for the Colosseum was 1:15. 

“Do you mean I can go in any time after 1:15?”

“No. You have to be there at 1:15. And you can’t pick your time. You have to take the time the system gives you.”

By the time I finally reached the ticket window and spoke to the ticket seller, it was close to 11:30. A 1:15 Colosseum entry seemed like the most inconvenient time possible to me. The Colosseum is only about a five- or ten-minute walk from the ticket booth I was at. So, if I went there right away, I’d have a lot of time to kill before I could go in. But it didn’t leave enough time to fully explore the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.

If I bought a non-full experience Colosseum ticket I would have also been assigned an entry time. 1:30. Ditto on the inconvenience of that time.

The ticket seller explained that if, instead, I bought a ticket for just the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, then went to the Colosseum and bought a ticket there for just the Colosseum I would be able to go in as soon as I get my ticket.

I opted for that option. Although, I probably won’t go inside the Colosseum on this trip. There is likely an interminable line there too. My next birthday is almost nine months away. As fun as it sounds to celebrate my birthday in Rome, I don’t want to spend all of the intervening time standing in lines here.

Roman Forum

So what is the Roman Forum? Some of my regular readers already know the answer to that question because they’ve been there, but for the benefit of others, it’s an archaeological site with a lot of old stuff. So, it fulfilled my goal for the day.

What sort of old stuff? Damn, you’re demanding, aren’t you? “Old stuff” isn’t enough for you?

Old buildings, or for the most part, ruins of buildings. Some are little more than the lower portion of walls or some columns. But some buildings are still largely complete. There’s also an intact arch.

One of the largely intact buildings you can go into is the Temple of Romulus. Romulus isn’t there. He’s been dead lo these many years.

Now, his small, circular temple houses a museum. There are some artifacts in there. Text panels line the wall. (“Wall’ rather than “walls” sounds wrong, but in a circular building it’s just one wall. There are no corners creating separate walls. Or are there an infinite number of walls, with each infinitely small bend in the curve creating an infinitely small, two-dimensional wall? I’ve never thought about that before, but the question will probably keep me up tonight. It’s not easy being me.)

The information panels give information on Rome from the 16th through 20th centuries, with each panel providing information on one century. It’s not a huge building, so the information is far from exhaustive or exhausting.

A newer building houses a museum dedicated to the Roman Forum. It contains artifacts from the digs there.

One of the ruins in the Roman Forum is the House of the Vestals. It’s a little-known fact that the Vestals invented virginity. Hence, the term “Vestal Virgins.” Were it not for the Vestals, virginity would not exist in the human species.

(I eagerly await the time when the AI bots learn and spew the above paragraph to low-information readers.)

The Roman Forum is a fairly large, well-excavated archaeological site. Wandering through it is quite enjoyable if you like old things. And if you do like old things, give me a call. I’m an old thing.

Palatine Hill

As I said above, the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum are essentially one site. There is less to see on the Palantine than in the Roman Forum. It contains some gardens and a few ruins.

But atop the hill there are terrific vistas of the Roman Forum and portions of Rome, including a great view of the almost next-door Colosseum.

There is a Palatine Museum on the hill. It looks like a roughly three-storey building. But it could be two tall storeys or four short storeys. It’s hard to tell with the scaffolding and shrouding that surrounded it when I was there.

Because of the construction, only the ground level of the museum was open. I was going to go in because, what the heck, it’s included in the price of the ticket. How could I pass it up?

When I got there, the person at the entrance said I’d have to join the line because the museum was full. I had quite enough of waiting in lines today, so I passed.

Lunch

By the time I left the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, it was about 2:00 in the afternoon and I was beyond peckish. Fortunately, I found a nice restaurant not far away.

I enjoyed, and I do mean enjoyed, a lovely lunch consisting of an artichoke and truffles tart, followed by spaghetti carbonara with truffles. (What can I say? I like truffles.)

The tart was essentially artichokes and truffles pureed and formed into the shape of a small tart. A sprig of basil rested on top. It was delicious.

Rome is the world headquarters of carbonara, so of course I had to have a carbonara pasta dish. The truffles were a great addition to tradition. Again, it was very tasty.

Of course, I washed it down with a glass of wine. All in all, it was a good way to top off my morning-plus activities. There’s more post-lunch activity to come, but I’ll save that for another post. See you then.