Roman Forum

The next day was one of our biggest yet...the Forum, St. Peter in Chains, then the Coliseum (included on the Forum ticket). We'd not seen the Forum since 2011, and much was closed then. 

Our (Rickie Stevie audio-) tour began near the Coliseum 

And the Arch of Constantine

At the Arch of Titus, mostly commemorating his victory over
the Jews

Where much of our tour went

Remaining bit of the Basilica of Maxentius, a huge structure

The Forum is mostly a dry barren place, especially unpleasant in
the hot summer...but the blooming wisteria help

Doors to the Temple of Romulus (a late Emperor's
son); they and their hinges are original and still
work

Remains of the Temple of Tony and Tina (Antoninus Pius and
wife Faustina); 2nd century CE

Antoninus?

Temple of the Vestal Virgins

Garden and ponds of the Vestal Virgins' domicile; with statues
of some of them (the tradition of the Vestal Virgins, like most
other things in ancient Rome, went on for many centuries)

Traditional site where Julius Caesar's body was cremated; used

to be covered in flowers; now coins

There is excellent signage (and in English too)
throughout the Forum; I especially appreciated the 
credit given the archaeologists...

As close as we could get to the Curia, the reconstruction
of a late Empire version of the Roman Senate building

Arch of Septimius Severus

Temple of Saturn

No lack of spare parts

Column of Phocas; emperor in Constantinople
(Rome was no longer the capital) in early 7th
century CE; the last monument to be erected in
the Forum in classical times; in the foreground,
a fig tree, an olive tree, and a grape vine; according
to Pliny the Elder, three trees grew in the Roman
Forum, ficus, olea, and vitis...symbolizing the
primacy of agriculture in Roman culture 

Remains of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, 
said to be the most-photographed scene in the
Forum

Portico of the Harmonious Gods...dating from the 1st century
BCE, reconstructed in the 19th; it's been a while since I read
Homer or Hesiod or Virgil, but I never got the impression the
Olympian gods were all that harmonious...

Looking back where we've been...end of tour

Interim Update #1,265

Our three weeks in Rome were up, and it was time to move on to Florence. The Train of Great Velocity sped us there in something less than two hours, and our new home, a small apartment called the Tosca Suite, was only a couple blocks from the SM Novella station. So we are settled here, we have already located the Carrefour, the Conad, and other necessities, and I am ready to resume blogging. Except we want to visit the many sights here...

Passing under beautiful Orvieto at Great Velocity

Our street, Via della Scala

Return To SM Maggiore

On a day off, we made good on my pledge to return to nearby Mary Maggie for some better pix. Alas, the light was no better and the mosaics just as far away, but here's a sampling anyway.

Along the way, an exposed part of the Aurelian wall; note the
recycling

Ditto

Now in the great ancient 5th century church again, looking at the
totally mosaic'd triumphal arch

And the half dome

Crowning the Queen of Heaven

Lower right of the arch: Bethlehem

Lower left: Jerusalem

And now a few of the mosaics over the nave: battle scenes, mostly;
don't ask me...

Lots of battles...I must have been looking at the Old Testament
side, where the light was better...

Cat Sanctuary

Our walk back from Trastavere to the bus stop took us also to the cat sanctuary at Torre Argentina. I am posting a few pix for family members who are, have been, or will be, feline fanciers.

SM Trastavere

Our Easter Sunday return to Trastavere was due not only to my scavenging ways but also to the fact that we thought--hoped--Vicki's missing hat had been left at the Dar Poeta restaurant the night before. And so we trudged from Porta Portese up to the restaurant again, the area no less crowded than the night before, and, voila! there was the hat sitting next to the manager's station. Thank you, honest Romans and tourists! 

Our walk had one other salutary effect: we passed by one of our favorite churches, SM Trastavere, and were able to go in and have a good look. The church dates from the 340s, just the foundation, and claims to be the oldest Marian church in Rome. There were major restorations and re-dos in the 5th, 8th, and 12th centuries; also the 18th, but who's counting? It's one of the frustrations but also one of the glories of these things, knowing that something is indeed very old, but that what you're looking at, parts of it, are not that old. The basilica design is Roman, the beautiful granite columns in SM Trastavere are possibly from the Baths of Caraculla or from a Temple of Isis (old), and the mosaics are Medieval (old enough). The Madonna della Clemenza is reckoned to be 6th-9th century, Byzantine (plenty old enough). A favorite place.

View from the piazza

Arch and half dome

King and Queen of Heaven

Deposition of Mary

Center aisle of the basilica and beautiful columns

Madonna della Clemenza

Ceiling...more pix of this church here

Porta Portese Market

Porta Portese is Rome's Sunday flea market, in Travastere, something we did a decade ago, and again in 2019, but something I wanted to do yet again, to soothe my scavenging nature. Vicki did not want to do it...properly characterizing it as the world's longest line of crap. So it is...not a flea market any more but just a bunch of overstock, hot, or otherwise dubious stuff, no more than a couple of stands of items of collectible, aesthetic, literary, or historic interest. Or any other interest. Mostly knock-off clothes and discards. A kilometer long, at least, maybe a mile. Great people-watching, sort of. We didn't buy anything. We almost never do anyway. I think I'll now move it to the "once in a lifetime" category. Or maybe the "once in a lifetime is once too many" category. BTW, this was Easter Sunday morning, the high holy day, in Rome, the capital of Christendom; and the flea market was packed. 

Table after table of stuff for 1€ or 2€; why bring clothes with
you in a suitcase when you can buy it all here cheap and look
like a native?

Sic transit, Gloria