We could have visited the Spanish Steps but I chose instead to spend our remaining time and my remaining stamina in visiting the Roman era ruins. The ninety-five degree heat was tiring us both.
Michael told me we were getting close when we spotted the Victor Emmanuel Monument. This huge structure was completed in 1905 according to my research but many people think Mussolini built it in the nineteen twenties. It is certainly massive enough to be a Fascist structure and its construction required destroying some Roman era ruins. Mussolini was responsible for the road: Via del Fori Imperiali, that runs from the monument to the Coliseum and cuts through the site of the Roman, Trajan and Imperial Forums.
The remains of the various forums, columns and arches are heart of Rome. I had a great time walking the Via del Fori Imperiali and photographing many sites. Even though I had studied the map before the trip, the reality looked very different than I had imagined it. Excavations and restorations have been ongoing for hundreds of years. Remains of Republican and Imperial Rome overlay each other. The early Christians also built their churches on the site or repurposed Roman buildings as churches. Everything is jumbled together: forums, walls from many eras, remnants of columns, triumphal arches. There are even walls from Trajan's market, perhaps the earliest known indoor shopping center. We walked the approximately half a mile to the site of the Coliseum marveling at the diversity of ruins.
The Coliseum was as large as I had expected, however there was much less traffic than I anticipated. The land at the back of the Coliseum and Constantine's Arch has been blocked off from traffic. The street on the North side was very busy but the rest of the area has become a pedestrian only zone. A wire fence prevents visitors from touching Constantine's Arch.
Michael and I were able to climb only partway up the Palatine hill. The paths on our map had been blocked. A gate prevented us from walking in the original Roman Forum, along the Via Sacra, from seeing the arches and remains of the temples there and the residences on the hill. It was hot, we were tired and somehow I just did not feel like spending six Euros each to see them up close since we had been viewing them from a short distance while walking the half a mile of the Via del Fori Imperiali. I'm sure that had it been ten degrees cooler I would have been happy to spend another hour inspecting Roman ruins.
As it was, we were happy to discover that we could get a bus from in front of the Coliseum to Rome's main railway station. The bus was cleaner than the railway trains. In about twenty minutes, the bus deposited us in the square in front of Rome's Central Terminal.
When we bought our unlimited rail, subway and bus passes early that morning we also got a map of Rome and a Train schedule for trains between Rome and Civitavecchia. The schedule worked fine in the morning. We reached the platform for the train departing at 3:40 p.m. and discovered that it was a train to Naples, not to Civitavecchia. The actual train to Civitavecchia departed ten minutes later from a track completely at the end of the station and beyond on a set of tracks off to the side of the train shed and attendant buildings. Michael and I walked briskly but took the entire extra ten minutes to get to the right train. We boarded the last car no more than a minute before the train departed.
The train was a local. It made every stop on the line between Rome and the port. The cars were filthy. Graffiti was scrawled everywhere. I don't think the car had been cleaned or its windows washed since the rail line had taken delivery some years ago. We had no air conditioning but luckily, we could crank the window open a few inches. This provided a view as well as some air. I was surprised at the amount of farm and open land relatively near to Rome. Michael and I spent a long two hours riding back to Civitavecchia and the Silver Wind. I consoled myself with the thought that we left later and arrived sooner than the people who took the air-conditioned tour bus.
Granted, I have only seen a small part of the city but Rome did not seem as huge as I expected. The seven hills so not seem all that high. The things I wanted to see were mostly accessible. By walking everywhere, I was able to see a living, breathing city, not just the standard tourist fare. There were certainly many, many tourists. July is, after all, part of the high tourist season. It would probably take three or four days to see Rome properly. I hope to do that someday, but not on a cruise. Cruise stops only give one a taste of a place. I think Michel and I made the most of our short visit.
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