When in Rome...Day 4

“I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.”
-Augustus, Roman emperor

(Throw a little beach in there, too.)

 Day 4 - October 3

 Today was a day of ruins. Walk-by ruins, ruins that are now home to a colony of cats, ruins that are older than the Colosseum, Forum ruins, and ruins that cover a huge area.

 Image result for free images of cats in Rome ruins

 Some of the cats looked healthy, others not so much. (This one looks a lot like our cat, Marshmallow.)

Next we see the ruins of the Theatre of Marcellus dating earlier than the Colosseum to 13 BC.

What is really crazy is seeing apartment spaces added to the top of the ruins! Can you imagine living in such a place?  Apparently the Italian palazzo built on top the mini Colosseum was listed in 2012 for 26 million euros.

Turn the corner to see the more ruins.

Check out Josh's backpack - he's brought Spike Ball to Rome!


We then walked to the Ponte Fabrico di Roma bridge which is from Roman times (62 BC).
Imagining Caesar Augustus, Apostle Paul and Peter walking on this bridge was mind-boggling.



Apparently lovers seal their bond here, too!

Now we are getting close to the Forum ruins and all I can say is,
"We certainly aren't in Kansas anymore!"

These ruins seemed to stretch longer than several football fields. 

(Extra bonus points for naming these two Roman mythical twin brothers!)
 We aren't quite done with ruins for the day.  The biggest (as in sizeable dimensions) is yet to come after lunch and bus trip:  Ostia Antica. Ostia Antica - 15 miles southwest of Rome -
used to be the harbor at the mouth of the Tiber River during the times of ancient Rome. It may even have been Rome's first colony.  The water level changed over time and the people left this harbor city which no longer had a close-by harbor in 9th century BC.  (Sort of like the abandonment of Pompeii minus the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius?) The abandoned remains bring to viewer to another time and place in Rome's history.
We were fortunate to have Anders as our personal guide through the ruins.













 It was really something! And it was really hot, too.

To cool off  we ended our day with a trip to the beach.
A beach on the Mediterranean Sea.



Remember Josh's Spike-Ball-in-a-Backpack?
 It sure came to good use here.

A perfect way to wrap up a day witnessing very, very old ruins and a very, very new (to me) game!



Comments

  1. PamOctober 12, 2018 at 10:17 AM

    I know, I know, good ole Romulus and Remus. Ah oooooh (bad wolf imitation)

    ReplyDelete

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