First we headed to the Colosseum. Built by the Emperor Vespasian on the site of Nero's pleasure lake, it was a center of social life and unprecedented public nastiness for the people of Rome for hundreds of years. Scholars estimate around 500,000 animals and people died during the gladiatorial games held there - they've dug up a large quantity of animal bones and other grim remains from the grounds. There's an excellent display up now on Vespasian, Titus, and the Flavians. Nice programming you've got going on there, city of Rome. (As I have stated previously, if we hosted gladiatorial games today in, say, Birmingham, the turn out would be stupendous.)
These were the rooms beneath the floor of the Colosseum, where wild animals and deeply unlucky gladiators were kept before rising up to the stage by use of pulleys and trap doors. By the by, Christians were never actually fed to lions in the Colosseum, or at least not in any significant numbers. This is backed up by the fact that the Colosseum was not considered a site of pilgrimage until relatively late in the game, after any memory of what actually occurred had passed long into antiquity.
An inside view of the Colosseum.
This curious mural inside the Colosseum apparently is a map of Jerusalem. You can see little people on crosses outside town. As I recall from the helpful interpretative sign it dates from around the middle ages, but as I can't find diddly about this on the internet, I could be way off base. Thoughts?
The walls of the Colosseum. The marble was stripped off the interior considerably during medieval times. The big chunk cut out of the wall of the amphitheater is due to a 1349 earthquake, and not due to the incursions of ancient aliens. (In case you had thought that.)
It's an easy walk from the Colosseum to the gates of the Palatine Hill. The day was already heating up and quickly edging into nuclear territory, but we soldiered on - Old Rome's ruins really are unmissable. We passed by the Arch of Constantine, dedicated in 315 and standing relatively unscathed ever since. Apparently it was constructed from bits and pieces of other artworks and triumphal arts.
A view of the Palatine Hill. This was the hill from which Rome was governed. The museum on the Hill has an interesting overview of life here before the Romans - apparently tribes of people have been living here in mud huts and various apparatus for basically forever, long before Romolus and Remulus manhandled some poor wolf.
The site of the old Circus Maximus, Rome's chariot racing arena and Nascar-equivalant. The park was first used for entertainment purposes by the city's first Etruscan queens, and eventually grew to the point where it could accommodate 270,000 spectators by 50 BC. Chariot racing was an extremely dangerous sport and often resulted in death, maiming and spectacular crashes - I can imagine hordes of Romans hoisting up the equivalent of foam WE'RE NUMBER ONE HANDS and cheering on the racers while slugging down cheap wine. Some things never change. Not much left here now, to the perennial disappointment of tourists to the Eternal City. (But what will the Indie 500 Speedway look like in a 1000 years, I ask?)
Another view of the Circus.
An interesting geometric garden on the Hill. Doubtless royals did immoral frolicking here, or something. I like to think about immoral frolicking.
This is the Hippodrome of Domitian, a structure that looks like a Greek amphitheater. It's thought that it was a garden built to look like a theater and wasn't used for much more then the occasional friendly foot race. Though with the Romans the foot race probably ended in an orgy and beheading. A happy people.
I love these Roman pines. Apropos of nothing.
Purportedly the villa of Augustus.
This is thought to be the swimming pool in Augustus's personal residence. It is not in the shape of a guitar, which is sort of depressing. Imagine how bitching that would be.
The top of Palatine Hill looks down on the Roman forum - a pleasant walk down the hill will get you there, passing by an attractive grotto-like spring and various gardens from all sorts of eras.
A building in the vicinity of the forum. Don't ask me what it is.
Yes, friends and countrymen, this be the bona-fid 200% grave of Julius Caesar - you may have heard of him. Or at least that's what they say. It's not a particularly impressive structure, and one does get a sense of the politically charged rush-job the poor SOB's internment must have been. It does my heart good to see that he still gets flowers.
A view of the Forum looking toward downtown Rome. You can see the incredible hodgepodge of building styles that's present down here - everything lumped onto each other, much of the later stuff drawing inspiration and raw resources from the older stuff, and so on and so on.
One of the Forum's many buildings conveniently transformed into a church. This proved to be a good thing when it came to preservation: it's a lot harder to tear down a church for spare parts then a altar of pagan decadence, innit?
For lunch, we visited one of the various cafes spaced out around the Pantheon. It was a fairly pedestrian meal and I am ashamed to admit I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the place. However:
The restaurant offered a great specimen of one of Rome's pleasures, an antipasto buffet. For one price, you can load your plate up with various vegetable and (sometimes) cheese delights, often with multiple trips included. Italy's green and leafy delights often don't get enough attention, overshadowed by lasagna, pasta, and humongo veal chops, and these antipasto platters are a good way to get your five a day in Roma. Spring for it whenever you see one - you won't regret it.
Ristorante l'Angoletto
Piazza Rondanini 51 Roma
06.6868019
For dinner, we visited a restaurant that came highly reccomended on the Chowhound boards. Not one to distrust the Hive Mind, we made a reservation and paid a visit. Tucked away in the warren of allies and restaurants behind the Pantheon, l'Angoletto is a subtley classy place with a focus on seafood and extremely fresh pastas. Complete with a charming al-fresco garden and a quiet and attractive location, it's an excellent choice for high-end dining in the Pantheon area. Observe.
For my starter, I chose the seafood saute. A seafood saute in Rome, as I've learned, generally means something more along the lines of shellfish in some sort of broth - exactly what this was. Fresh mussels and clams floated in a light white-wine and garlic broth - simple, fresh, and good. The broth was a bit salty to drink straight.
My dad went with the penne in arrabiata sauce, a classic spicy Italian preparation. The al dente penne were perked up considerably by the fresh and spicy tomato sauce.
My mom selected a pasta dish with cherry tomato and octopus - really nice, with a slightly aquatic flavor and a tangy, decadent texture. Liked this a lot. L'Angoletto is known for their octopus preparations - apparently we should have ordered the fried baby octopus, but no one was quite able to bite the bullet. They are really so very adorable, you see.
For my main course, I selected fish ravioli in cream sauce. It's a standard dish and one I've enjoyed many times with lobster, but this version was a true game changer. Super-smooth and delightfully flavored filling was enveloped by fresh and light as air pasta - the rich but not-obscene cream sauce was the perfect counterpoint. Dearly wanted to pick this up and lick the plate but that might have been a tiny bit gauche.
My mom chose the veal saltimbocca, another Roman classic, executed admirably here. Tender medallions of veal with prosciutto and sage in a light olive oil sauce - simple, classic, good. No photo as it came out unspeakably badly, which is a shame for what is generally one of the more attractive Italian dishes.
My dad chose a veal steak - veal being curiously well priced here compared to the USA, and delicious to boot. Tender and tasty and cooked to perfection over what seemed to be charcoal. Nicely done.
We passed on dessert at the restaurant and headed to the nearby Gelato San Crispino, which is widely considered to be the finest ice cream provider in town. Can't offer anything near an informed opinion on that, but I found the stuff excellent. I chose ginger and cinnamon and strawberry, and found both flavors delightful. The ginger and cinnamon was unique, warming, and extremely interesting on the palate - you've got to try it. The strawberry was ultra fresh and conveyed the essential nature of strawberriness which is about all once can ask for. Pay these guys a visit.
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