We decided to spring for the Archaeobus so that we could ride around on the top deck with the wind running through our hair and admire the sights as we rattled by.
The Temple of Venus Genetrix.
Il Colosseo.
We made use of our tickets from the Baths of Caracalla and stopped off at the Tomb of Caecilians Metella.
We visited with some locals there.
Mmmm, cold, refreshing water...
We also visited the Catacombs of San Callisto. Another no photo stop, but you can see a bit here.We returned to Rome and got off the Archaeobus at Piazza Venezia. We headed past the Forum of Trajan to his markets and the museum of the Imperial Fora.
They have added all sorts of architectural and sculptural pieces here since Lex last visited. It has a nice overview of the different Imperial Fora.
Aud and a Dacian from Trajan's Forum.
Lex and the characters from the upper story of Augustus' Forum. It's almost like being on the Athenian Acropolis!
A bit of sculpture from Caesar's Temple of Venus Genetrix. It's somewhat reminiscent of the Ara Pacis frieze, perhaps not surprising since Octavian had to finish up Caesar's Forum and temple of Venus. But the two monuments are a good thirty years apart, so maybe Augustus just got his ideas from great uncle Caesar. There was a lovely little snail on this bit.
The hemicycle, a.k.a Trajan's mall.
"Pepper St."
There are some crazy shopkeepers here!
Tonight many of the museums were open from 8:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. This is the first night of a summer of Saturday night openings. So after dinner we hopped a bus and went down to Largo Argentina, where we visited with the cats, and went on to the Capitoline Museums.
It was nice because hardly anyone was there.
We headed downstairs first to the epigraphical gallery and the Tabularium, which overlooks the Forum Romanum. It's quite lovely at night.
These are courtesy of a handy, flat railing and a 4 second shutter speed.
We wandered through the rest of the museum, taking in the Ritratti del tante facce del potere exhibit. You can't take pictures of anything in the exhibit, but the rest of the museum is fair game. They had some really nice pieces in the exhibit.
Lex took this one before she found out about the no photo rule.
That's a big guy!
They have done a nice job displaying the foundations of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. They also have a lot of stuff that was in the Acea Museum, so it's not so bad that we won't be able to make it there. We didn't finish up until after midnight. We hopped a bus to take us back up the hill to our hotel. Unfortunately, Aud was sure it was the 117 that we had taken earlier in the day, but it turns out we had taken the 116t, which goes up Via Nazionale. The 117 does indeed go right by our hotel, but first it goes down Via dei Fori Imperiale and around to the Lateran, where it is based. So we got a lovely tour of a part of Rome that we hadn't really seen on this trip!
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