Our last night of the trip deserved a nice dinner, and we found a nearby restaurant, Donati, that had sensa gluten options.  I had a delicious penne with salmon sauce followed by roast veal, salad and small potatoes.  Ian had spaghetti carbonara, then steak with a tomato sauce, also with salad and potatoes.  I finished with chocolate tartufo ice cream.

With an evening flight today, we had about 6 hours in which to explore Rome.   We’d been here before and seen the main sights, so decided to concentrate on the Forums and Palatine Hill, the centre of ancient Rome, and the main thing I felt we missed out on last time.  This tied in nicely with our explorations of Istanbul and Ephesus, also of course both part of the Roman empire.

Our map was lacking some detail –yes, we have been spoilt having a 1:7500 streetO map of Venice; the tourist maps pale by comparison.  We found that the brown tourist signs in the streets don’t always point in the right direction either.  We headed in the general direction, passing enormous churches with enormous domes, and enormous statues on top of enormous columns.  The most enormous was the Vittorio Emmanuel monument, derided by the locals and dubbed “the wedding cake”.

There are two entrances to the Forums, and we’d heard the northern one was less crowded than the one at the Colosseum.  Finding it turned out to be as navigationally challenging as anything else we’ve done in the past month! It didn’t matter too much, as you can see a lot from the outside anyway.  We had a look at the smaller Imperial Forums, much of which is still being excavated – we saw some archaeologists at work.

Sweeping away history

Eventually we found the entrance to the Forums and spent a pleasant hour or so wandering amongst more marble columns, triumphal arches, remains of temples and basilicas etc.  This really was the centre of Rome – at the foot of the Temple of Saturn was the point from which all other distances in the empire were measured.  It was also the area where politics and trade were carried out. Unfortunately it’s lacking interpretive signs so an audio guide or guided tour would be a good idea.

The centre of ancient Rome

We headed up the Palatine Hill, not really knowing what was there.  Turns out it’s a vast area where the nobles lived in their palazzos and grand casas, amongst expansive gardens.  The size of the site was a bit daunting but we pressed on upwards until we reached a terrace with stunning views across the south and west of Rome.  The garden here was a nice spot for a picnic.

View from top of Palatine Hill – worth the climb

Crossing the top of the hill, we reached the Severan complex of buildings, another huge area added by Nero, who wanted to make the hillside look even more grand and imposing.  This was a labyrinth of stairways, arches, terraces, buildings and gardens, and if the Italian Orienteering Federation ever holds a sprint race here, I’m in! It would be brilliant.  Again we had great views, this time to the east and over the Circus Maximus and Colosseum. It was definitely worth the climb up.

Palatine Hill, another great venue for a sprintO, but maybe a little tricky to map

Wending our way back down to the Forums, we headed across to the Colosseum.  It was here that we were sucked into Rome’s very own vortex of doom, as we encircled the famous monument looking for the entrance. Turns out it was just to our left, but we went right, and all the way around.  The same thing happened when we exited.  Oh well, at least we got to see the fake gladiators hoping to part tourists from a few euros for a photo.

We weren’t fooled

The Colosseum is one of the few things that we’ve returned to from our trip 20 years ago (and we did so only because it was included in our entry ticket for the Forums).  Back then, we were on a coach trip that took us to the main sights, and we saw the Colosseum in isolation from the rest of the ancient city.  This time, having seen the Forums and Palatine hill first, it had a much better context as the main entertainment venue for the rich and famous.

Last stop before flying home

It still amazes me that you can just sit down on a horizontal chunk of marble for a rest, but we did just that before summoning up the energy to hike back to the Yes HHotel, where we’d been able to conveniently store our suitcases for the day.  Lunch (including gluten free profiteroles from the nearby supermarket), some repacking, and a train trip later, we’re at the airport waiting for our flights to Dubai and Melbourne.  Home in about 30 hours time!

Update: long uneventful plane trip home, jetlag setting in fast, early dinner then bed.  Over to Pete and Ilze for the next two weeks – enjoy!