Zeno wakes us up at 6:30, perfect timing as we have to leave at 7:30, to catch the train at 8, and arrive in Rome at 8:30. We take the metro and exit at Piazza del popolo. It’s so exciting to be in Rome together! The capital of the Roman empire. We sense their energy in the air. It will be a busy day. We spot our first obelisk and the mirrored twin Santa Maria churches.
We take the stairs, climbing the Pincio hill and enjoying the view at Piazza Napoleone. we’re happy we’re dressed warm today, as it’s chilly despite the blue sky.
We arrive at 9:30 at the Museo dell’Ara to see the Ara Pacis (Altar of Augustan Peace) to celebrate the return of Augustus to Rome after three years in Hispania and Gaul. Only Tim is fascinated by it. It is the best preserved sculptural building from the 1st century. Olga and the kids enjoy the movie showing its original state, including colours, before it was burried under four meters of slib from the Tiber.
Next to the museum is the Mausoleum of Augustus, it is being renovated, which surprises us, as it was renovated for 14 years and reopened only in 2021.
Much is being renovated in the city, which we thought to be finished before this year as it’s a jubilee year. It seems like they just put renovation signs in front of old buildings before even having a plan for the renovation.
Luckily, the Basilica of Saint Augustine in Campo Marzio is open for public. It’s famous for its Carravaggio and a Raphael inside. The next Church of Saint Louis the French even has three Carravaggio’s. The churches are also beautifully painted and decorated in Renaissance style.
It’s already busy when we arrive at the Pantheon at 10:30. We have to stand in line for 30 minutes to get a ticket and to see the ancient temple from the inside. It’s very well preserved, considering it’s nearly 2000 years old, because it’s has been in constant use.
The next church is the Basilica di Santa Maria sopra Minerva. A unique Gothic style church where Galileo’s process took place and with a statute of Michellangelo.
We’re still not tired of churches, on the contrary, we’re blown away by all masterpieces inside and the excellent state of the interior. Next is the Church of St. Ignatius. Olga’s intern Giulia is from Rome and told us to look for a specific yellow stone on the floor to see an optic illusion on the ceiling. So, we walk past a long line of tourist that want to take a selfie in a mirror, find the stone, and it works! We still wonder why the yellow stone does not have a line of people, but a mirror where you have to pay to look into has. When we look it up we find out the mirror is a TikTok hype, attrackting millions of youngsters to a church with impressive ceiling paintings.
We enter a nearby building with eleven pillars in front, the Temple of Hadrian. Inside there is a film playing, and the kids meet a robot.
The Column of Marcus Aurelius is being renovated, so we cannot see much. We walk through a gallery towards the Trevi Fountain. It’s extremely busy, no way we can toss a coin, so we just have to make sure we come back to Rome on our own.
It’s 12:30, and we’re cold and hungry. We sit down in a restaurant recommended by Giulia and enjoy excellent Tuscan food, ravioli and pasta.
After lunch we decide to go to the Forum Romanum. It’s not that far by foot so we head that way and go up the stairs to visit the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. It has a nice view towards the theatre of Marcellus and the city. The church is old, and a church has been on this spot for more than 1300 years. The current building dates from the 13th century but inside only the Roman columns and the floor are from this building. The decoration is all later, and the ceiling was given by the last person to get a triumph in Rome, the admiral who beat the Ottomans at Lepanto.
We take the back exit so we don’t have to go all the way down and back up again to reach Michelangelo’s Capitol square. Sadly here the main building is also covered up for renovation so we take a quick look at the copy of the bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius and exit via the Via del Campidoglio for an excellent view of the Roman forum.
There is no ticket office at this entrance so we buy tickets online. It’s a bit irritating that tomorrow is 1 January as all passes and combination tickets make no sense for us now.
We look at all the ruins and head for the Palatine hill for the best views of the forum and to visit the remains of the palaces. But before we go into the Temple of Romulus which is possible with our Super ticket. Once we are on the hill we find out that our ticket isn’t that super since all the super things close at 15.00 and it’s 15.02.
It’s at the Villa of Augustus where Tim looses Olga and kids, taking the two phones with him. Our family agreement is activated: if somebody gets lost, you stay where you are, close to the last spot you were still together and Tim will search for the lost person. Also now that Tim is the lost person, everybody else stays next to the Villa of Augustus. It takes some time and trust, but after 30 minutes, the family is reunited again.
We take in the views and walk along the still impressive remains until they announce that the site will close at 16.00 and we head to the exit.
We take the exit next to the Colloseum which has a metro station to get us back to the train station and back home. Many other people are thinking the same thing and we’re quieing to get just inside of the station. Our train leaves at 16.28, so we have 15 minutes to make it. When we finally arrive at Rome Termini it is 16.35 so we have to wait for an hour. We buy a ticket and get something to eat from the food court so we have something to do while we’re waiting and we can sit back and relax once we’re home.
The train ride is smooth, we look for fireworks when the train crosses through the Southern suburbs of Rome, but we don’t spot any. At 18.00 we’re home, tired but fulfilled with all the things we saw today. It were 23.000 steps today according to Tims calculator, which is very impressive taking Cleo’s size and age into account. Tomorrow we’ll give our feet some rest and take the car for a spin.
