Rome - Roman Forum

On the way there, we got to see the Altar from last night in the daylight with another column, Trajan's Column (#5), near excavations of Trajan's Forum (#6). Seems like anywhere they dig in this city they run into 1000+ year old ruins.

This was the centre of Roman civilisation from around 2500 years ago. It's actually quite well preserved considering (maybe because) it was covered in sediment/debris after the Roman Empire fell ~1500 years ago.

Entirely by accident, we entered by a side entrance (near Trajan's Forum), skipping the huge line at the entrance. We followed another Rick Steves guide to give some context to the ruins, but basically lots of temples and Caesars' houses and a few government buildings.
I was most impressed by the Basilica of Maxentius, so huge to have been built in ~300AD, especially when you consider the remaining part is only one side and is missing the taller nave section (in the left background of #2, oh btw that's just the Coliseum further away on the right).Read more