Under Golden Arches in Italy, a Tract of Roman Road - FEB. 22, 2017

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO FEB. 22, 2017 New York Times

It’s a common enough story in Italy: An ancient ruin — in this case, a tract of Roman road — is discovered during the construction of a building — in this case, a McDonald’s — and puts a halt to the work until the site can be excavated.
Rather than fret about lost time and money, McDonald’s decided to sponsor the dig, and it worked with the archaeological authorities to preserve the road, built between the second and first centuries B.C.
As of Tuesday, visitors to the fast-food restaurant, about 12 miles southeast of central Rome, could walk along the 147-foot stretch of road without even having to buy a Big Mac.
Many parts of Italy contain subterranean riches, and over the centuries, countless edifices have incorporated or adapted the ruins of previous eras. Several restaurants in Rome, for example, have an important historical or archaeological lineage, like being the site where Julius Caesar was murdered, or a place where oil amphorae were stocked in ancient times. Even the McDonald’s in Termini Station in Rome includes a section of the Servian Wall, from the fourth century B.C.
But the work at the McDonald’s in Marino — more precisely in the hamlet of Frattocchie, known as Bovillae in ancient times — stands out because the project incorporated the road, which would otherwise have been reburied.
“Archaeology is constantly bringing to light testimonies of the past that have to be documented in an exacting manner but can’t always be properly preserved,” said Alfonsina Russo, the Culture Ministry’s archaeological superintendent for the area.
In many cases, unless the archaeological finds are exceptional, they are reburied in the hopes that they can be re-examined later. “It’s better to protect them than to leave them exposed, when it’s not possible to properly care for them,” Ms. Russo explained. “The earth protects, man destroys.”
The finding of the road, uncovered in 2014 while digging for the foundations of the McDonald’s, came as a surprise. “We decided with McDonald’s to protect and promote this important site, which would have otherwise fallen again into oblivion,” Ms. Russo said.
The road was a diverticulum, or side passage, leading to the Appian Way, an ancient Roman thoroughfare built in 312 B.C. The uncovered stretch probably led to a villa or a great estate, Ms. Russo said.
Archaeologists who worked on the dig have said that the unearthed road, which has grooved signs of ancient wear and tear from cart wheels, was most likely used for a few hundred years before it was abandoned. The skeletons of three adult males found in the gutter of the road, which have been reproduced in resin casts, are signs that the road had been abandoned, said an archaeologist involved in the effort, Pamela Cerino.
The skeletons, which have yet to be dated through carbon testing, were found with items including terra cotta tiles, that led to the hypothesis that the road stopped being used in the second or third centuries A.D., Ms. Cerino said.
She was hired by McDonald’s but worked under the supervision of the Culture Ministry, as is usually the case in Italy when private property is involved. McDonald’s spent around 300,000 euros, or about $315,000, on the restoration project.
The road was excavated, documented and enclosed in a gallery with a glass roof, so that patrons of the restaurant can look down on it. The entrance to the gallery is separate and can be visited by anyone, not just McDonald’s customers.
Given its remoteness from major attractions, the site is unlikely to attract many tourists, although explanatory panels in Italian and English have been installed throughout the site. School groups from nearby towns began arriving on Tuesday, when the site officially opened to the public.
The gallery is closed off by a gate and monitored with surveillance cameras, and McDonald’s Italia has pledged to pay for its upkeep. “That’s the most important thing, guaranteeing its constant maintenance,” said Ms. Russo, who added that Culture Ministry officials would periodically check on the site.
“It’s easy to excavate, the more critical operation is to preserve a site,” she said.
“We’re proud to be here, giving this Roman road,” said Mario Federico, managing director of McDonald’s Italia, who said it was the first time the restaurant chain had encountered the need for “a solution of this kind” in Italy.
Asked if he thought hungry patrons would be squeamish about seeing skeletons on display below, he said it was unlikely.

Rome's Colosseum remains open despite damage reports - 30 Dec 2011

Jolyon Attwooll – The Telegraph - 30 Dec 2011

The 2,000-year old Colosseum amphitheatre is safe to visit, tourism chiefs in Rome have insisted.

Officials at the Colosseum ruins in Rome have confirmed that the popular attraction will remain open to tourists as normal, despite reports of damage to the structure earlier in the week.

The Italian news agency Ansa reported that pieces of the 2000-year-old amphitheatre, regarded as one of the most impressive feats of architecture in the Roman Empire, had fallen on Christmas Day, as well as on Tuesday .

However, the director of the Colosseum, Rossella Rea, was quick to downplay the sighting, while the culture ministry also insisted that "nothing had collapsed since the 18th century."

When contacted by Telegraph Travel, officials at the Colosseum said the attraction was open as normal and that there were no plans to close.

An employee at the Rome Tourist Board also said the site was safe to visit.

The Colosseum, which costs €12 (£10) to enter, attracts up to two million tourists each year and is one of the most visited sites in the city, second only to the Vatican.

A restoration project on the structure, which used to seat 50,000 spectators in Imperial Roman times, is due to take place in spring 2012.

Colosseum 'crumbling’ after reports of falling rocks- December 27, 2011

The Telegraph – Rome - 27 Dec 2011

Italy’s culture ministry is investigating reports that bits of rock have fallen from the Colosseum.

Witnesses reported seeing the fallen masonry on Sunday. Italian news agency ANSA reported another bit fell Tuesday, but Colosseum director Rossella Rea denied it and blamed the false report on a “psychosis” that occurs every so often that Rome’s iconic stadium is crumbling.

Italian environmental group Legambiente has frequently raised the alarm about the precarious state of the Colosseum, charging that auto exhaust fumes and vibrations from vehicles and a nearby subway are damaging the Colosseum’s travertine exterior and brick and tufa interior.

A 25 million euro restoration, paid for by Diego Della Valle, founder of shoemaker Tod’s, is set to begin in March.

In May 2010, slabs of ancient plaster fell from the ceiling of the Colosseum .

The plaster, which dates from Roman times, fell from a 10 square foot section of roof in one of the stone entrance ways through which spectators used to file to watch gladiators take on wild animals, prisoners-of-war and each other.

Authorities said at the time that the loosening of the plaster may have been caused by heavy rain, humidity and temperature changes.

Archaeologists said the near miss should act as a wake-up call for the parlous state of the arena, which was started by Emperor Vespasian in 72AD and subsequently suffered damage from earthquakes and centuries of pillaging.

Italy’s Ancient wonders crumble from neglect: Pompeii collapse just the latest- November 9, 2010

By FRANCES D'EMILIO, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ROME - Italy is rich in ancient wonders, but the real wonder may be that so many are still standing given the poor care they get.

The collapse in Pompeii last week of a frescoed house where gladiators prepared for combat was the latest archaeological accident waiting to happen. The structure was a piece of storied past that had survived the furious explosion of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. — but apparently could not withstand modern-day neglect.

"We're stunned when some walls fall down. But these are ruins not systematically maintained, so the miracle is that so few of them collapse," said Andrea Carandini, a world-renowned archaeologist who leads a panel of professional consultants in the Cultural Ministry.

Last spring, a huge segment of the now underground complex of Nero's fabled Golden Palace in Rome gave way, raining down pieces of vaulted ceiling in one of the galleries beneath a garden popular with strollers. Three years ago, a 6-meter (20-foot) section of ancient wall named after the 3rd century Emperor Aurelius, who built it to defend Rome against the first onslaught of barbarians, crumpled into a pile of bricks after days of heavy rain.

A couple of months ago, three chunks of mortar broke off the Colosseum , hours before the symbol of the Eternal City opened its gates to tourists.

While the ancient Roman arena of gladiator battles and other spectacles has survived earthquakes, lightning strikes and pillaging, architects and engineers still fret about the architectural marvel, eroded by pollution, rattled by subway cars running nearby, and still suffering from centuries of poor drainage.

But topping experts' list of potential perils is the Palatine Hill. For years, archaeologists and structural engineers have been issuing alarms that the once palatial homes of Rome's ancient emperors risk collapse because of poor upkeep.

Fissures are apparent in brickwork, and rainwater seeps through stone, forcing the closure of much of the hill's expanse to tourists.

Pompeii's gladiator barracks along the doomed city's main street joined a list of other recent victims of neglect in the sprawling remains that were once buried under the volcanic ash of Vesuvius' wrath.

Among the more noted casualties was the collapse in January of the House of the Chaste Lovers, which was excavated in 1987, a relatively recent addition for the 3 million tourists who tread the Pompeii's stone paths each year.

"We are tired of commenting on the continuous collapses and damage to the archaeological heritage of our country," said Giorgia Leoni, president of the Italian Confederation of Archaeologists in a statement after the gladiators' place fell apart on Saturday.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Tuesday decried what he called "terrible negligence" as a chief reason for national embarrassments like the Pompeii collapse.

Carandini, interviewed on Italian radio, warned that should Pompeii be hard hit by an earthquake — "we wouldn't be able to do a (complete) restoration" because no relief map has ever been made of the site. The Naples area, which hosts the ruins, is one of Italy's most earthquake-prone.

Lovers of antiquities here have long bemoaned the chronic shortage of funding — relative crumbs in the national budget pie — for routine maintenance of treasures to shore up shaky structures and save them for posterity.

Italy's Cultural Ministry, whose duties include caring for and repairing ancient monuments and artworks, gets a mere 0.18 per cent of the national budget, compared to roughly 1 per cent for France, according to ministry officials. It's a startling contrast for a nation that boasts the world's highest number of ruins, churches, monasteries and other artistic and architectural treasures — helping to make tourism one of Italy's biggest industries.

Ironically, experts describe Italy as being "in the avant-garde for programs of prevention, for pinpointing" potential peril with the help of architects and engineers, and drawing up a "kind of map of risk."

Giorgio Croci, one of Italy's best-known engineers for structural problems, said the nation's know-how is so in demand that Turkey has commissioned him to study Istanbul's monuments for potential perils.

"But one of the woes of this country is a bureaucracy that's paralyzing," he said. "In some cases, plans just languish in the drawers of officials or bureaucrats."

Greece, with its legacy of ancient marvels, seems to do a better job at keeping its treasures intact.

On the whole, Greek sites have benefited from a generously-funded restoration and conservation program over the past decades. Although Greece is staggering through a severe economic crisis, work has continued on the Acropolis, whose marble temples and monumental gates have been painstakingly taken to pieces, sorted out and stuck together.

That work started after experts realized, in the 1970s, that quick action was needed because of worsening pollution and damage from past restorations.

In Italy, private sponsors, ranging from utility companies to mattress manufacturers, fill some of the gap. But they pick and choose, often "adopting" only the most high-profile projects, seldom unheralded but crucial work such as removing wildflower roots from cracks in millennia old stonework.

Croci said the Pompeii collapse might have been avoided if simple, affordable measures had been taken preventatively — such as injecting material to encourage cohesion in the stone or simply covering the structure with some kind of shelter.

"A lot of the interventions are not that costly," said Croci, who has mapped out weak spots in the Colosseum and Palatine Hill ruins.

The structure was repaired in 1947 after damage from World War II bombing, and the use of reinforced concrete in that restoration was cited by some as a possible cause for the collapse.

Inspecting the wreckage on Tuesday, Pompeii's recently appointed superintendent, Jeannette Papadopoulos, said reinforced concrete was "slowly" being removed from some of the earlier restorations but that "unfortunately" restorers hadn't gotten around to tackling the gladiators' building.

Croci, who hasn't inspected the collapsed house, disagreed, citing infiltration of rainwater rather than concrete as the more likely culprit.

During a walkabout through the ruins two days after the collapse, a noted Pompeii expert pointed to rivers of rain runoff — as a state TV camera rolled — pouring through the sprawling site because weeds were clogging gutters and sewers.

"All you need is a team of artisans, carpenters and such to call when you see a simple problem," said Fabrizio Pesando, a professor at Naples University of Oriental Studies.

___

Associated Press reporter Nicholas Paphitis in Athens contributed to this report.

Slabs of plaster fall from ceiling of Colosseum – May 10, 2010

Nick Squires – The Telegraph – Rome -10 May 2010

Slabs of ancient plaster have fallen from the ceiling of the Colosseum, leading experts to call for a £20 million restoration of Italy's most famous Roman monument.

The slabs of plaster broke through safety nets which had been set up to catch falling debris.

The three chunks of mortar plummeted to the ground around dawn on Sunday, a few hours before thousands of tourists tramped through the gladiatorial arena.

They crashed through a wire protection net which was supposed to have prevented such accidents, but which is more than 30 years old.

Archeologists warned that disaster had only narrowly been averted and that visitors could have been badly injured or even killed by the debris.

The plaster, which dates from Roman times, fell from a 10 square foot section of roof in one of the stone entrance ways through which spectators used to file to watch gladiators take on wild animals, prisoners-of-war and each other.

A 23 million euro restoration and cleaning project is meant to get under way in the next few weeks, but Rome city council is still trying to raise funds from the private sector in Italy and abroad to finance the work.

Authorities said the loosening of the plaster may have been caused by recent heavy rain, humidity and temperature changes.

Archaeologists said the near miss should act as a wake-up call for the parlous state of the arena, which was started by Emperor Vespasian in 72AD and subsequently suffered damage from earthquakes and centuries of pillaging.

"Once again we've come close to tragedy," said Giorgia Leoni, the president of the Association of Italian Archeologists.

"If the collapse had happened during opening hours, it could have hit one of the thousands of visitors who, especially on Sundays, crowd into the Colosseum." Attempts in the past to strengthen the Colosseum had been woefully inadequate, said Andrea Carandini, the president of the Council for Culture and Heritage.

"Decades and decades were lost," he said. "The problems of the Colosseum and of other ancient monuments in Rome were never taken by the horns. Sooner or later something was going to happen." The Colosseum, which attracts 3.2 million visitors a year, is not the only ancient monument in Rome that is crumbling.

In March this year, the roof of the Domus Aurea, a magnificent palace built by Emperor Nero but covered up by succeeding emperors, caved in, damaging the interior.

In 2001, a section of the Aurelian Wall, the stone ramparts which were built to defend Rome from barbarian invasion in the 3rd century AD, collapsed as a result of heavy rain and subsidence

A Free Walking Tour of the Ancient Roman Palatine Hill, Rome, Italy

The Palatine Hill is the centermost of the Seven Hills of Rome and is one of the most ancient parts of the city. It stands above the Forum Romanum, looking down upon it on one side, and upon the Circus Maximus on the other. According to Roman mythology, the Palatine Hill was the location of the Lupercal cave where Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were found by the she-wolf that kept them alive.

Many affluent Romans of the Republican period had their residences on the hill but it was during the Empire (27 BC-319AD) that the Palatine Hill came into is own as the emperors resided there in the Flavian Palace. This palace, which was extended and modified by several emperors, extends across the entirety of the Palatine Hill and looks out over the Circus Maximus on one side and the Roman Forum on the other, was the primary residence of the Emperors for over 300 years. The English word “Palace” comes from “Palatium” the Latin name for the area.
Built by the Emperor Domitian, who ruled from 81-96 AD, The Flavian Palace is made up of several sections. The best preserved are the Domus Flavia, which was the greeting, reception and public palace of the Emperors, and the Domus Augustana which was the actual home of the Emperors.
Domus Augustana should not be confused with the nearby House of Augustus, which is believed to be the actual home of the first Roman Emperor, Augustus. All subsequent Roman emperors were called “Augustus”, a title that lasted for over 300 years, and thus the name is reflected in the designation of Domus Augustana.
The Domus Augustus was built down several stories into the hill on the south slope overlooking the Circus Maximus with a private balcony for which the Emperor could watch the chariot races. One of the benefits for its design is for the geothermal properties creating both, warmth in the winter and coolness in the summer months. Pools were located at the bottom of open-air stairwells to provided light to these lower levels. Currently you are unable to visit the lower levels.
The Palatine Hill Stadium formed part of Domus Augustana. The exact purpose of the Stadium is unknown, with some historians saying it was a private garden and others thinking it was a place for the emperors to exercise their horses.

The House of Livia, also known as Livia’s House or Livia’s Villa, was the home of the third wife of Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire and the mother of its second emperor, Tiberius.
Set on the Palatine Hill, Ancient Rome’s most desirable location, the House of Livia is currently being excavated by the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Roma and so is usually only accessible by prior appointment.
In January 2007 archeologists announced that they had probably found the legendary Lupercal cave beneath the remains of Augustus' residence on the Palatine, the Domus Livia. Archaeologists came across the 16-metre-deep cavity while working to restore the decaying palace. The first photos of the cave show a richly decorated vault encrusted with mosaics and seashells. The Lupercal is not currently open to tourists.

The House of Augustus, was the modest home of Ancient Rome’s first emperor Augustus and contains a vivid collection of frescos. Open to the public since 2008, the House of Augustus has been carefully restored and offers a fascinating insight into the life of Ancient Rome’s elite.

The Palatine Museum (Museo Palatino is located in between the two halves of the Flavian Palace, Domus Augustana and Domus Flavia and houses a collection of finds from the Palatine Hill, with artifacts dating back as far as the Middle Palaeolithic era, though the main exhibits at the Palatine Museum are that of Ancient Rome, particularly between the first and fourth centuries AD, when the Palatine Hill was the best address in the city and home to Rome’s emperors.

Forum Visitor Information
The Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum beneath it, is now a large open-air museum and can be visited on the same ticket as the Colosseum.

Location: Main entrance on the Via dei Fori Imperiali, but there’s another at Via San Gregorio 30.
How to Get There: Colosseo Metro stop, bus lines 60, 75, 85, 87, 95, or 175
Admission Fee: €11 (This is a ticket that covers the Forum, the Colosseum, & Palatine Hill, and it’s good for 48 hours.)
Hours: Daily, 09:00-19:00 (or one hour before dark)

Not to be missed sights of the Vatican in Rome

Since 1929 the Vatican City has been is own sovereign state with the pope at its head. The Vatican City is the world's smallest nation at108.7 acres, and has a population of about 820. Vatican City is separated from Rome itself by ninth-century walls, and has it own post office, bank, currency, judicial system, radio station, shops, a daily newspaper and an army of Swiss Guards.
1. Vatican Museums - the museums are housed in palaces originally built for Renaissance Popes. There are 13 museums and 14 private apartments and spaces of Renaissance Popes including the Sistine Chapel.
2. The Vatican Gardens - open for guided tours, make up a third of the Vatican’s territory.
3. Raphael Rooms – In 1508 Pope Julius II hired the relatively unknown Raphael to fresco his Belvedere palace private apartment. Raphael’s frescos representing Truth, Good and Beauty made him an instant rival to Michelangelo, then painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
4. The Sistine Chapel – was built as a private chapel for the popes in 1473. In 1508, Michelangelo started work on the ceiling of the chapel. The work is made up of 9 main panels, which chart the Creation of the World and the Fall of Man. Though the ceiling is the most famous, the walls are not to be overlooked. They were frescoed by some of the most famous artist of the 15th the 16th centuries with the culmination of the great alter wall in 1541 by Michelangelo.
5. Dome of St Peter - Through the use of large proportions the eye is “fooled” into thinking the interior is smaller then it is. Michelangelo’s dome is 448 ft high and the mosaics of the four Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, who are holding up the “pillars of the church”, are huge with their quills alone over 5.7 m (19 ft) high.
6. Michelangelo’s Pieta – the Pieta was created in 1499 when Michelangelo was only 25. The Virgin Mary embraces her son’s lifeless body carved from immaculate white marble and is the only sculpture to bare his signature. It has been protected by shatterproof glass since 1972 when it was attacked by a man wielding a hammer.
7. Necropolis/ St Peters Tomb – Enter through the Excavations Office on the south side of the basilica. In the necropolis there are Roman graves as well as the likely burial spot of St Peter, a climate-controlled space where visitors as allowed about 30 seconds each. Reserve well ahead at scavi@fsp.va. In the grottoes below the main alter is the final resting places of 18 popes including Pope John Paul II
8. the Holy Door – Every quarter century the Pope ritually open the Holy Door to signal a papal Jubilee Year and closes it at years end.
9. Piazza San Pietro – laid out by Bernini between 1656 and 1667 the two sweeping semicircles of four-tiered colonnade show the beginnings of the overwhelming scale on which St Peter’s was built.
10. The Obelisk - taken from Egypt the obelisk was erected in Rome in A.D. 37
11. Via della Conciliazion- the main road into the Vatican City is lined with shops selling “kitsch” holographic images of the Popes, and Saints, religious statuettes with rolling eyes and oversized crosses.
12. Castel Sant’Angelo - The castle began in 139AD as a mausoleum for the Emperor Hadrain. In medieval times it became a citadel and prison. During times of unrest it provided a place of safety for the Popes. A secret corridor links it with the Vatican Palace providing for an escape route and the castle was equipped with comfortable apartments.

Free Self-Guided Walking Tour of the Roman Forum of Ancient Rome

It might seem unbelievable when you’re looking at the Roman Forum that such a small area could be so important, but it was the political, economic and religious center of the ancient city of Rome and thus, by extension, the entire Roman Empire. The Forum stands in a valley between the Capitoline and Palantine Hills. During the early Republican era it became the arena for political rallies, public ceremonies and meetings. The importance of this area declined around the 4th century AD, along with the rest of the Roman Empire; the temples, monuments and buildings, built by a succession of the Roman Elite over 900 years, fell into ruin. Starting in the 18th century the area has been continually and systematically excavated. The Roman Forum, currently, is a large open-air museum.
The main entrance is located half way along the Via dei Forti Imperiali, but for this Self Guided Walk we will use the entrance on Via di San Gregorio, the street just beyond the Arch of Constantine, going south from the Colosseum. The reason for this is that the exit to the park is the beginning of the route that the emperors, consuls and generals followed on their triumphant return to Rome up the Via Sacra. This is the “start” of the Via Sacra and this Self Guided Walk of the Roman Forum.

Upon entering the gates turn right and follow the past alongside the Palatine Hill, until your reach the Forum. On entering the Forum walk straight to the 1) Arch of Titus. Built in 81AD by Domitian to commemorate his brother Titus’ victory during the Jewish War, the Arch is to be viewed walking from the Colosseum, into the forum the way the Triumphal March would have gone. The inscription on the attic states “The Senate and Roman people erected this monument to commemorate Titus.” Representations of “Victory” are in the corners of the arch. Facing the forum, the panel on the right interior depicts the Emperor Titus in his chariot being led by the goddess Roma while Victory crowns his head with a laurel wreath. The left hand relief does not focus on any one aspect but depicts the soldiers marching into Rome carrying the menorah and other sacred object from the Temple of Jerusalem, as well as placards that explain the events of the campaign to the people of Rome.
The arch as a whole is made to make us feel like we were there for Titus’ Triumphal march down the Via Sacra

Behind the arch on the left, facing the Colosseum, is the 2) Temple of Venus and Roma – Built in 135 AD, by the Emperor Hadrian, it was the largest known temple in Ancient Rome. Dedicated to the Goddesses Venus and Roma the chief protectors of the city. The temple was designed in the Greek style, versus the Roman one and is now the exit and the Museum for the Forum

Walking through the arch continuing down the Via Sacra, on the right, is the 3) Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine dating from 308 AD, it was the largest building in the Forum. Created as a public place for civic affairs it was the last great administrative building built in Rome as the next Emperor Constantine shifted his power to “New Rome”, Constantinople. The Basilica still has its roof as well as three of its huge arches and vaults. You are able to see the construction methods of how the ancient Romans were able to build on large scale and quickly.

Continuing down the Via Sacra you will pass by on your right the 4) location of the Temple of Romulus, now part of the Church of Santi Cosma e Damiano.

You will pass a stand of trees, bearing to the left you come to the circular 5) Temple of Vesta. Built in 3rd century BCE the Temple to the Goddess of Fire, the sacred flames were kept burning by the Vestal Virgins. The girls came from noble families and were chosen when they were between the ages of 6 and 10 and would serve for 30 years. They had high status and financial stability but were buried alive if they lost their virginity. The house where they lived is straight ahead, a few paces from the Temple. The 6) House of the Vestal Virgins dates from the 6th century BCE, some walls and the central garden and pool with statues is all that remains.

Re-tracing your steps back straight across the road is 7) Temple of Antonius and Faustina. This is the best surviving building in the Roman Forum. Constructed in 141AD by Emperor Antonius to honor his wife Faustina she was deified and worshiped and upon his death in 161 AD he too was deified. The reason why the temple is so well preserved is that it was turned into the church San Lorenzo Miranda in about 500AD. The columns are all that remains of the original Temple.

Continuing up Via Sacra, take the first left and you will by-pass the 8) Temple of Ceasar. Built in 42 BCE all that is left of the Temple is the location of the altar upon which Caesar’s body was burned at his funeral, you may see flowers left there.

Continuing straight you will see, on your left, the 9) Temple of Castor and Pollux. Built in 495 BCE; the remaining elaborate carved cornice and columns, date from the 6AD when the Temple was re-built. On the right is the 10) Basilica Julia the seat of the civil magistrates court.

At this point you will notice that the forum stands well below the modern day street level. Surprisingly this is because of pollution. The build-up of garbage and everyday waste over the centuries has caused the street level to rise. There is much more ancient Rome underneath modern Rome, but it’s nearly impossible to excavate because of the whole modern city built above them.

Turning right you will walk down the length of the Basilica Julia to the 11) Temple of Saturn. This is the oldest surviving structure in the area, built roughly around 500 BCE it was the location of the state treasury, as well as the Temple to the God of Seeds. All that survives are the 8 columns.

Now we are at the end of the Roman Forum. Turning right you will see a single standing column on the right. This is the 12) Rostra Augusti/ Millarium Areum/Umbilicus Urbis Romae. This column is the location of the building, which was deemed the center of Ancient Rome. The Umbilicus Urbis Romae was the building and the Millarium Areum was a column on the building from which the distances to all points in the Roman Empire were measured.

Continue to the 13) Arch of Septimius Severus. The Arch was dedicated in 203 AD to commemorate Septimus Severus’ victory over the Parthians. The inscription in the attic records that he fought against the Arabs and the Parthians. The reliefs are badly worn but you are still able to get the general effect of the exploits of the Emperor. Representations of Victory carrying trophies on sticks are in the spandrels while small boys, representing the four seasons are just below. The base of the columns are reliefs of captured soldiers. If you look closely on the center archway, at the base of the columns, are a series of score marks and indents at the corners, these were caused by chariot wheels from the Middle Ages when the ground level was much higher.

Passing through the Arch, bearing to the left, is the 14) Curia Julia (Roman Senate) which was built in 44 BCE by Julius Ceasar. You can go up to the door and look at the marble mosaic floor and know that Roman Senators walked on those intricate designs 2,000 years ago and ruled the Empire.

This is the end of your Self Guided Walk of the Roman Forum. It might not look like much now, but these scant few acres hold more history than the entirety of most cities

Forum Visitor Information
Location: Main entrance on the Via dei Fori Imperiali, but for this Self-Guided we are using the one at Via San Gregorio 30.
How to Get There: Colosseo Metro stop, bus lines 60, 75, 85, 87, 95, or 175
Admission Fee: €11 (This is a ticket that covers the Forum, the Colosseum, & Palatine Hill, and it’s good for 48 hours.)
Hours: Daily, 09:00-19:00 (or one hour before dark)

To experience this Free Self Guided Walk of the Roman Forum with a short term apartment or villa rental contact European Home Rentals, specialists in renting weekly short-term vacation rentals apartments, houses, cottages and villas in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, England, Ireland, Scotland and Greece
1-800-263-7152
www.europeanhomerentals.com