Roman Forum

During this visit we will walk among the huge ruins of the ancient Rome's pulsing heart, a strategic meeting point between people located near to the natural ford of the Tiber at Isola Tiberina, between the Palatine and the Capitol hills: Here we will find evidences of more than two thousand years of history, enclosed in a very little space.

We will discover an archaic necropolis, dating back to the area where the hole was still an inhabited swamp, before reclamation which tradition attributes to the dynasty of the Etruscan Tarquin. We will pass next to ancient inscriptions, engraved in an archaic Latin with curses at the time of the seven kings of Rome on the black stone.

Then we will find evidence of the Roman conquest of the Mediterranean and the progressive enrichment of this city, which became the capital of an huge empire. We will continue our journey through floors, monumental areas, magnificent marble temples, like the Temple of Vesta (who hosted the sacred fire of Rome) and the adjoining House of the Vestal Virgins; the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, the Regia, the Golden Milliarium (symbolic place that represented the exact center of Rome, with marks containing distances from major cities of the Roman Empire), the Rostra (where the speakers hurled invectives against their political enemies).

We will visit the Basilica Julia and the Basilica Emilia, where justice was administered. On its steps old hands lazed around and drew signs to play dice. We will see two great triumphal arches: the first one was a witness of the Temple of Jerusalem's destruction by Titus, whereas the second commemorated the conquest of Mesopotamia by Septimius Severus, two centuries later.

Then we will see the Curia (the place where the Senate meetings took place), the Temple of Caesar (turned into a monumental site after Julius Caesar's funeral.)

Imagine the triumphal processions led by victorious generals, between two wings of crowd, from the last stretch of the Via Sacra to the Capitol Hill, where they used to sacrifice outside the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.

Finally we will come to the Basilica of Maxentius (which actually was completed by Constantine after his victory over his rival in the battle of Ponte Milvio). Its immense proportions and its iconography were ahead of the medieval and Byzantine art.