Roman Forum

All of the tourist books will tell you about visiting the Colosseum and Roman Forum. You pay one entry fee to both. The Colosseum only has one entrance for visitors, but the forum has 2. The forum entrance that is right next to the Colosseum is very crowded. It has really long lines all day long. The other entrance is about a 4-5 minute walk from the first and the lines are hours shorter. We chose the walk and the 20 minute line.

 Before visiting, I did a ton of research on one of my favorite blogs. She suggested finding a book called Rome: Past and Present and I must strongly agree. The book shows the monuments as you see them today with an overlay of how the monuments looked originally. It offers bits of history and information and comes with a CD. I looked before we left and couldn't find one around here. We didn't find one in Rome until just after we left the forum and I wish we would have had it before.

 As an adult, it's easy to see the ruins and imagine the large buildings all around. My kids were more confused until we sat down and went through the book so show the then versus now photos. This book is sold in many different languages all around the forum and Colosseum. Just not by the entrance we used in order to avoid the lines. Learn from my mistake - find the book, then walk to the other entrance.

 See this large piece of building just laying on the ground? The flower has a lot of detail and my kids loved feeling it and seeing where it came from...

 This is what remains of the Temple of Saturn. If you look to the top, above the columns, above the Roman writing, you see the ledge hanging out with some squares facing down. Those squares are flowers identical to the one on the ground. The fence is there to keep someone from being under when one falls.

 

 There are so many amazing things to see. This area is huge and this was possibly the only thing we went to see that we didn't walk the entire thing. (We skipped the circus maximus, which everyone said was basically just a field now.) The kids still never complained and they loved having so much room to explore and see new (technically old) things.

 The grounds are maintained better than I expected and excavation is still continuing in many areas of the forum. I can't even imagine the cost to try maintaining something this large.

 Sweet daughter wanted her picture taken with the "pretty girl" statue. We were in the courtyard of the Vestal Virgins and I'm not sure why this one was pretty and the other ones weren't, but I like that she was paying attention.

 

 It was also fun to see the different types of buildings and materials they used. From solid stone, to brick, and other combinations everything really does look unique.

 

 Walking through ancient Rome with modern Rome in the background is a really neat experience. With the kids asking questions like, "Are those buildings going to fall down also?" We had great discussions about history, architecture, the environment, and the importance of maintenance.

 

 We could have spent all day just in the forum, but remember we had to visit the forum and the Colosseum in one day. There is just so much to explore. While I'm certainly not a history buff, I was fascinated and our kids were happy and entertained. That's more than I expect from most tourist stops.

 

The blue "lake" behind us is actually flowers. They were in bloom and from a distance it looked like a small stream to this lake. It wasn't until we got close that we could see what it really is - and that they keep it roped off so people don't trample on them. I had a hard time narrowing down which photos to use for this post. I hope you enjoyed the ones I selected because we have more than 100 more (from just the forum) that I had to sort through.