Our first full day in Rome consisted of going to the Forum, the Colosseum and the Pantheon. As well as churches we passed along the way and a couple of piazzas. The forum grounds were much larger than I had expected. It was very crowded so a shot from high up was much easier to capture than the ones down below when I had to manuever my way around people. My biggest challenge was when I would stop to take a picture. I’d turn back around and then have to search to try to find where Chris and Karen had gone.

“Until 509 BC, when Rome became a republic, the city was reigned by an Etruscan dynasty of Tarquin Kings. They built a sewer, the ‘Cloaca Maxima’, to drain water from the marshlands of the valley between the Palatine, Capitol and Esquiline hills to the Tiber river. Ever since, the area was the center of activityin Rome. It was the site of the first forum. Here, triumphal processions took place, elections were held and the Senate assembled.

Today, the forum known as the Forum Romanum can look like a disorderly collection of ruins to the uninitiated, but with some imagination you can see the Roman empire come back to life at this site. Remains of many buildings from different periods are visible; the forum was littered with temples, basilicas and triumphal arches.”
reference: A View on Cities