Rome Day 2 (04 September 2013)

Tags

antique market, architecture, Basilica of Constantine, city, citytrip, Colosseum, Constantine, culture, Foro Romano, Fororomano, forum, forumromanum, god, holiday, icecream, Italia, Italy, journey, life, love, old, photography, pictures, pizza, religion, Roma, romanforum, romano, romanum, Rome, summer, sun, travel

Day two of my Rome trip was warm, very very warm! Phew!

I started the day off by visiting a small antique market at ‘Mercato della Stampe’. It literally contained 9 booths with old junk. I would hardly call it an antique market, but oh well, it did direct me past ‘Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti’ the Spanish Steps and they were on my list for day 3 so I could tick that one off my list earlier than expected.

Because of the disappointment at the antique market I decided to have a nice stroll through the neighbourhood and met some of the local exotic species.

Very exotic pigeon right? 😉

My next stop was the Chiesa Basilica di San Clemente al Laterano and this became one of the most impressive things I saw during my trip! Unfortunately it was not allowed to take pictures inside the excavation area but I did take pictures of the outside of the Basilica, and sneakily took a couple inside the main Basilica.

You can find some pictures of the excavation area here though: http://www.basilicasanclemente.com/

What’s so special about this Basilica is that it basically consists of three tiers of buildings stretching over centuries. The lowest level is a house built somewhere in the 1st century, the middle level is a Basilica and a Mithraeum dating from the 4th century and the top level is the Basilica that is still used today dating from just before 1100. If you ever visit Rome, I highly recommend visiting San Clemente!

Slideshow San Clemente:

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After San Clemente I continued my way to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum (Foro Romano). I ended up spending about 3,5 hours around the Forum and visited some of the major highlights such as the Basilica of Constantine, the Arch of Titus, the Temple of Venus and Roma, House of the Vestal Virgins, Stadium of Domus Augustiana at Palatino, etc.

The Colosseum:

Hi… jup, that’s me 🙂

Slideshow Colosseum:

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Foro Romano:

The route I walked is in purple.

Colosseum seen from Foro Romano

Basilica of Constatine

Foro Romano

Foro Romano

Basilica of Constantine

Slideshow Foro Romano:

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I was so tired after all of this I went back to the hotel to get changed and searched for a nice restaurant to have a pizza, and of course some ice-cream! 😀

I’ll try to upload the rest of my trip asap!

Love,

M.