The Rich Family: Rome

On our second day in Rome, we struck out for the big Roman sites. First we went to the Colosseum, which was amazing! It was just what I thought it would be and it was so neat to be standing there. Daniel's favorite part was a patch of large gravel paving rocks that we found that he played in for quite a while. :)

After the Colosseum, we saw the Arch of Constantine on our way to the Roman Forum. This area contains some of the most important buildings in Ancient Rome. We saw the ruins of lots of temples and other buildings. The most well preserved building is the Curia, or Roman Senate House, which you can go inside. It was perfectly preserved. Side note - this is not where Julius Caesar was assassinated. The Senate was meeting in another building at that time due to work being done on this building. Another amazing building on this site is the Basilica of Constantine. In the slideshow photo you will see giant arches, with little stubs sticking out the top. These stubs are actually the beginning of even bigger arches that spanned across this entire hall. The photos don't do it justice on how big it was!

Next we headed up Palatine Hill, which overlooks the Forum (got some great shots from there). This hill contains the ruins from the Emperor's Palace, which was expanded over the years to pretty much cover the entire hill. We saw the excavated remains of Augustus' house (Caesar's adopted son and heir), which was very plain compared to the future palace. We also went into the House of Livia (another of Augutus' houses) where there were some amazingly preserved frescoes. It was really neat to see the frescoes in the location where they were originally. We walked around the palace ruins and looked out over the Circus Maximus.

Finally we headed towards the Victor Emmanuel Monument, passing Trajan's Forum, Market & Column along the way. At the Victor Emmanuel Monument, we climbed LOTS of stairs and then took the elevator to the top for amazing views of Rome all around.

Enjoy the slideshow!