Rome: The Eternal City: Foro Romano e Stadio Olimpico

On Sunday the 3rd of March, I was able to visit the Roman Forum.
Citizens of the ancient city referred to this place as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum. It was for centuries the center of Roman public life: the site of triumphal processions and elections; the venue for public speeches, criminal trials, and gladiatorial games; and the nucleus of commercial affairs. Here statues and monuments commemorated the city's great men. The heart of ancient Rome, it has been called the most celebrated meeting place in the world and all of history.

Temple in the Forum

It was also nice to take a free walking tour to really know what would have taken place here in ancient Rome rather than just wandering around guessing at its history. Most of the pictures are of random ruins that are now mostly in disrepair. Some of the buildings that are still standing are the Temple of Saturn, Temple of Vespasian and Titus, Arch of Septimius Severuns, Basilica Lulia, Temple of Caesar, Temple of Castor and Pollux, Temple of Vesta and some others that I did not necessarily recognize right away or they were a bit harder to identify which structure they were and what they were exactly used for.

Some other interesting things about the forum and Roma in general was that the ground level in the ancient times was about 60 ft. below where it was in the middle ages. This was because the Tiber river which runs through Rome has a tendency to flood quite often, and especially after the fall of the Roman empire nobody was regulating the river so within a span of 300 years or so there were around 70-80 floods in Rome alone. These floods completely leveled most of the ancient city making the riverbed much higher than it was. Also nowadays there was a large wall built to contain the river which helps to prevent constant flooding of the city.

me and the forum

The trees here are so tropical!

A view from the top of the forum, where Nero's house once stood

The top area of the Forum has beautiful views of the surrounding landscape which makes it easy to see why the emperors of ancient Rome all wanted to live on top of the hillside.

On our way back home to our apartment there was a giant bike race right through the middle of the city that was about 135 miles long or so. It was interesting to see and that is what the two pictures above are of.

AS Roma Soccer ticket!

Later in the evening around 8:45 at night the Roman soccer team had a game and since soccer is such a big thing in Europe we decided we had to go for at least the experience!
The Roman team is called AS Roma and their colors are maroon and gold. I love their gear, I feel very welcome in Roma whenever I wear it. There is a great sense of unity between the people who all cheer for the same team. AS Roma also played Genoa and won! The ending score ended up being 3-1 Roma, but we left a bit early as to avoid the massive crowds that would ensue at the end of the night.

AS Roma and SS Lazio are the two soccer teams that play at Stadio Olimpico, which is the stadium that was built for the games of the 17th Olympiad or the 1960 Summer Olympics which were hosted in Rome. The stadium is huge and holds 82,307 people, but it looks as if it could hold 1 million.