The Roman Forum is a must visit site at any time of day - the ancient Roman market place, centre of Imperial power, location of the Senate (still standing) and of Julius Caesar's assassination. To get in amongst the stones, rather than just gawp from the fence like the bus tours, has to be done by day, and can be dusty, hot and exhausting. Rome was never comfortable!

However, there's a little experienced (though much photographed) view of the Forum, by night, that is truly spectacular. Of the tens of thousands of visitors lodged in Rome each night, maybe only a few hundred make it up the steep steps of the Campidoglio - designed by Michealangelo - behind the Vittorio Emmanuele Monument on Piazza Venezia. Head down the hill to the right of the town hall in the centre of the small square at the top of the hill - and prepare to have your breathe taken away after dark..

Written by  James Dunford Wood.

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Worth going for the sights as well as the people. I counted tour groups from four different continents, all in about half an hour. Take your time (and your pictures) and then head on up to the Palatine hill.

 

Comment posted 9th September 2009 by Robert Evans.

The Forum was largely intact until the Renaissance, though crumbling. But the architects who so admired the classical style and copied them in their great churches and palaces felt no compunction about using the Forum as a quarry for their building materials, which is why it is so broken down today. At one period in Roman times one end of it was used as a rubbish tip - the trash was so high that apparently if you climbed it you could touch the tops of the temple columns next door.

 

Comment posted 27th June 2009 by James E. Wood.

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