All forum and um for all

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The plan today was to have breakfast, check out of St. Mary of the Fornication and take a taxi to the forum. We had no idea how busy it would be or if it would be sold out, since when my parents last went to the forum nine years ago it was free and not so busy. We took a cab, which works fantastically in Rome because it doesn't cost very much, though you need a new pair of underwear and the cab some new upholstery by the end of it.

Happily, it was easy to get admission to the forum and cost twelve euros each, which I believe was a just price for the treasures inside, and all the work that has been done to make the site pleasant to visit.

The forum was a highlight of Rome, and is defined thusly: The Roman Forum (Latin: Forum Romanum, Italian: Foro Romano) is a rectangular forum (plaza) surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, 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, venue for public speeches, criminal trials, and gladiatorial matches, and nucleus of commercial affairs. Here statues and monuments commemorated the city's great men. The teeming heart of ancient Rome, it has been called the most celebrated meeting place in the world, and in all history. Located in the small valley between the Palatine and Capitoline Hills, the Forum today is a sprawling ruin of architectural fragments and intermittent archeological excavations attracting numerous sightseers.



It was great to wander in the ruins and listen to the chirping of birds and the splintering of my shoulder bones under the weight of my inexplicably heavy overnight bag. One of the advantages of paying admission is the lack of desperate people who might steal my bag if I put it down for a moment. The fee does not keep out horrible young american women loudly educating their exasperated family that, "you know, like, the ancient senators thought that law was, like, wrong". I was very close to running over to her and pressing a euro or two into her hands if she would promise to shut up. Fortunately, the forum is very large, and it's easy to get away from such people. I did overhear some useful facts from other guides, such as Augustus Caesar (Octavian, for you BBC Rome fans) choosing white marble because it reflected moonlight and made the streets safer at night. In the category of things that make less sense: the forum is full of cats.

At any given time, large portions of the forum are under wraps for restoration or ongoing excavation. There is a wonderful little museum with some of the glassworks, jewelry and other items found on the site, and it really impressed me with how well some ancient Romans lived, and how much culture and knowledge suffered from the dark ages. For example, the ancient roman grasp of perspective in art is far superior to that of their compatriots one thousand years later.



In addition to areas that were markets, open areas, and apartments, there are beautiful gardens and lovely views of Rome and the coliseum. In the tradition of me doing cartwheels on vacation, I did a cartwheel in the forum.



It took about three hours to see all of the forum, then we took the coliseum metro to the station tiburtina to catch the train back go Poggio where our car has been waiting to take us back to the villa. The train comes every half hour, and once we'd purchased our tickets we realized there was a train leaving in three minutes and decided to run for it. It was a sprint through a good five hundred meters of train station, frantically stopping to validate our tickets in the tiny machines, then rushing up the ramp to the platform. Somehow we made it with seconds to spare, and spend the rest of the ride splashing about in the sweat pools we created in our seats.



On the way home we picked up delicious food and had a relaxing afternoon. Our dinner plan was to return to the restaurant where we had that heart attack cannoli, because they have an impressive pizza menu in the evening (but not at lunch, when we were there). The Tom Tom said it was a 35 minute drive, and we got about halfway before my mother questioned the route, feeling it to be odd. Geoff and I had been engrossed in how quickly the hills of the Sabine region flatten after only a few kilometers, and had not noticed. My dad was concentrating on the directions and not letting us die at the hands of an Italian kamikaze driver. Consultation with the Tom Tom and the address of the restaurant revealed something had gone amiss in the input of the lat and long of the restaurant and it was in fact taking us somewhere completely different, and that the town where the restaurant is located was in the opposite direction. As this was coming to light, the low fuel light began to sinisterly chime. Dad managed to find a gas station AND figure out the brilliant 24 hour self service box. You put money into it, but it doesn't give change, so bet low. The restaurant was located (thou at first we thought it wasn't since it has two completely different entrances on either side of the hill on which it is built) and the pizza proved to be worth the stress and hassle. Geoff needed some greens and so ordered the chicory salad. This was less a salad than it was something someone had scraped off the side of their pool. The Italians and greens have a guarded and mistrustful relationship. It was clear that once again, we ordered things all wrong. Pizza should be an appetizer, then a pasta course, then a meat course, then dessert. Our ordering pizzas alone, even though we ordered them to share, was clearly super weird and borderline offensive. The tiramisu was delicious.



Tomorrow there is NO PLAN, and I couldn't be more delighted. St. Mary of the Fornication did not have Internet, so I've had to catch up on my posts, and it will be nice to have a little extra time tomorrow. Also, I have never had such terrible allergies, even though I take an antihistamine every day, and if I lie at a certain angle (with two pillows instead of one, if I'm trying to prop to work in bed) a stream of irritated snot courses down my throat into my lungs and makes me hack like I'm in a house fire. All the hacking, nose blowing and hoarding of toilet paper as kleenex has been tiring and I gladly embrace a day at a slower pace.



Important counts from today:

Nuns at our breakfast: 58

Dogs holding up our car to be petted: 1

Tadpoles in the forum: a zillion

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