Roman Forum and Palatine Hill

After leaving the colosseum, I headed across the road to the Roman Forum, having to wait in a queue of people with tickets until I could enter. It did not take very long but was a bit annoying to have to re-queue but I entertained myself until I could finally enter. As with the colosseum, I had downloaded the free audio guide of the roman forum from Rick Steve's website. 

The Roman Forum is a rectangular plaza surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings.

Above is the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, the largest building of the Roman Forum built in 312 AD. The basilica is a marvel of Roman engineering as at the time of its construction it was the largest structure to be built

It was a lot of fun walking through all the ruins and seeing them in person. You can touch them, they aren't hidden behind glass or behind ropes.

Above and below the Temple of Romulus.

Above is the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, started in 141 AD by the Emperor Antoninus Pius, he dedicated the temple to his deceased and deified wife, Faustina the Elder. When Antonius Pius died, the temple was re-dedicated to join the two deities by Antonius'  successor, Marcus Aurelius.

Above is the Temple of Julius Caesar, built in 29 AD. Julius Caesar was the first resident of Rome to be deified and so honoured with a temple by his adopted son Augustus. 

Above the Temple of Castor and Pollux, built in 495 BC and dedicated to the twin sons of Zeus and Leda.

Above is the Temple of Vesta, a circular temple, the entrance facing east to symbolize connection between Vesta's fire and the sun as sources of life.

This grassy area and the ruins behind was the House of the Vestal Virgins, located just behind the Temple of Vesta. A vestal virgin was a young girl consecrated to Vesta and vowed to chastity, sharing the charge of maintaining the sacred fire burning on the goddess's altar. A vestal virgin was sworn to celibacy for 30 years.

Above is the large Arch of Septimius Severus, an arch dedicated in AD 203 to commemorate the victories against the Parthians.

Looking towards Palatine Hill, which stands 40 meters above the Roman Forum. Recent excavations of Palatine Hill show that people have lived there since approximately 10,000 BC. Many affluent Romans had their residences there as well as several emperors. The ruins of the palaces of Augustus, Tiberius and Domitian can be seen on the Hill.

Above the ruins of the Stadium of Domitian, also known as the Circus Agonalis.  The stadium was built in 86 AD by the Emperor Titus Flavius Domitianus as a gift to the people of Rome. It looks like you were once able to walk along the stadiums grassy area and you can see that it is kept manicured.

The view of the Colosseum and Roman Forum from Palatine Hill is amazing. You can see all over the ancient ruins and gives you an idea of what the people who lives on Palatine Hill saw when everything was in tact.

The visit to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill was a perfect start to my birthday. I had a really good time in all three areas of ancient Rome and I think the price is worth it but I recommend getting to the sites earlier as I saw a lot more people arriving and crowding the forum as I was making my way to the exit. 

Vatican Museum Tour

The morning after my amazing food tour, I got up super early to catch the metro to the Vatican. Like the food tour, I decided to go with The Roman Guy. I booked their "Privileged Entrance" Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St. Peter's Basilica tour, which costs $89.00. The tour may seem pricey but I thought it was worth the price. It is a small group tour and it was just me and a couple from the US.  Our guide Raffaella took us into the special queue to get access to the museum at 8 versus the normal time of 9.

Normally the tour goes into St. Peter's Basilica but Pope Francis was holding an audience in the square as it the Year of Mercy. The Basilica was closed for the audience but would reopen later on. When I arrived in the morning there was a lot of people but the square had been fenced off.

Back to the tour, we stepped inside the museum and hurried through it to get to the Sistine Chapel to get to be inside it with less of a crowd. It was beautiful. I do suggest googling it as there are no photos allowed to be taken inside of it therefore I have no photos. They are very strict on the no photos and there were guards shushing people and telling people to not use their cameras. I walked around with my head craned up to the ceiling to see Michelangelo's masterpiece.

The above photo shows what the Sistine Chapel was apparently painted like before Michelangelo got a hold of it.

Raffaella was an amazing source of information as she guided us through the museum. It was really nice to be in such a small group as we were able to ask her questions about anything we saw. I was very happy snapping away taking photos and looking around taking everything in. I don't know a whole lot about the Vatican so I was taking in all the new information and really enjoyed learning about it.

We entered the courtyard where a large bronze pine cone stands. It was once part of a fountain in Ancient Rome next to a Temple of Isis.

This large bronze ball is a version of the Sphere Within Sphere by Arnaldo Pomodoro.  Raffaella showed us a cool trick by crossing over the little fence surrounding it and spinning it gently.

The Vatican Museum is one of the largest museums in the world, there are so many items, paintings, sculptures to look at. The museum is over 500 years old, having been opened in 1506 of course I am sure it did not look like it does now but still 500 years old is old.

How I felt wandering around looking at all the cool and beautiful things in the Vatican Museum ^

One of the things I really liked was the false moldings on the ceilings. In the above photo the wall is painted to look like it is molded. We entered a section of the museum displaying maps of sections of Italy. I really liked this section and Raffaella took a photo of me and the couple that joined my tour in front of the more detailed map of Italy.

Moving on we entered the areas of the Vatican Museum that Rafael had painted in. It was amazing to see the beautiful colours used in his work and the amount of detail each fresco contained.

Apparently this was Rafael's girlfriend. ^

Sylvester Stallone is that you? ^

Rafael second from the right. ^

I saw this painting in the newer gallery where they host contemporary religious paintings, I thought it was quite amusing. The painting is the Trip to the Ecumenical Council by Fernando Botero.

We ended the tour by the little cafe the Vatican Museum has and parted ways with Raffaella. We were going to wait it out to enter the basilica. Eating something resembling a pizza pocket before I headed to the Sistine Chapel to try and find a seat and wait for the doors to the basilica to open.

Finally the doors were open and we slipped through a corridor, down through a section of the outside and around to the front of the basilica, entering the queue at the front so we did not have to wait at the back of a very long line. The place was very busy as there had been a lot of people there to attend the audience of Pope Francis.

But St. Peter's Basilica deserves a post all to itself as it is very beautiful. I hope you enjoyed the photos of my tour of the Vatican Museum.