Walking the Forum

Today was mostly spent taking a walking tour of the Roman Forum, which is literally right outside my bedroom window.  I spotted a booth that offers a self-guided listening tour for 4 Euros, so I may opt to do it sometime in the near future.  Also located here is the ticket office for the Palatine and the Colisseum - I am advised that if you want to visit the Colisseum, it is best to buy tickets here to avoid the long lines at the Colisseum for tickets.

Santa Maria in Antica, an ancient church in the Forum, is presently closed for repairs.  Although the signs posted indicated a 3-phase project scheduled for completion in 2006, the posted signs are for a phase 2 that was supposed to end somewhere in 2004.

The size of the buildings in the Forum is impressive, particularly the Basilica of Maxentius, the ruins of which are located southeast of the Basilica of Saints Cosmas and Damian.  All that is left is the north wall - with three impressively huge vaulted ceilings and decoration - and some intact archways in the east wall, aside from the scattered ruins of columns and walls, but it still makes its size felt standing below.  While probably not quite as large as a football field, it certainly gives that impression, and seems to be about 4 stories tall.

The Forum has several arches, the most interesting of which to me is the one depicting Roman soldiers carrying back booty from the sack of Jerusalem.  One other interesting find of today was looking at a set of columns that still hold up a bit of marble, near the Capitoline.  The inscription has SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus, which is ubiquitous everywhere in Rome, from ruins to churches to modern day posterboards and drain covers), and a note that seems to imply restoration in the year 1943.  That has me wondering if it's referring to the restoration of those columns or the overthrow of Mussolini in 1943.

Later in the day, I wandered into a church where they happened to be celebrating a wedding.  It has to be a bit weird, getting married while tourists are wandering around, chatting, and snapping photos, but they seemed to take it well.  Still, where they were getting married seemed appropriate enough - an inscription overhead referred to the Queen of the Angels and the Martyrs.  The bride was on the left, the groom on the right - or, as I thought, respectively, the angel and the martyr of the newlyweds.