Forum Boarium, Palatino, and Forum Redux

After our orientation today we had a brief walking tour of Rome for those who had never been...basically we went from Piazza del Popolo to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. Then Caitlin, Bailey and I (Alice has still not yet arrived, as of 10pm) went and found lunch, which included some awesome strawberries from a street vendor, and then decided on an ambitious walking tour that took us all the way down along the Tiber to, we hoped, the Baths of Caracalla. Along the way we stumbled on the Forum Boarium, with the Temple of Portunus, which I recognized, and the round Temple of Hercules Victor, which I had never seen before. Across the street was the Bocca della Verita, but we decided to pass on that tourist trap, which had a long line. It was a perfectly beautiful day, and the road by the river was shaded, so it was really lovely. Eventually we wound up seeing what we thought was the baths, but which turned out to be one end of the ruins on the Palatino, which we only realized as we continued up the street and suddenly saw the Arch of Constantine from the other side. So we bought the combined ticket for the Palatino, Forum and Colosseum, and spent about four hours wandering around. It was really, really beautiful--there are gardens up on the Palatino, and amazing views out over the Forum, and Augustus' house, which has gorgeous intact frescoes with the most stunning color of red (photos on facebook!). All the flowers are in bloom here, and there are huge bushes of oleander and honeysuckle plants everywhere.

Sadly, the grocery situation is not as simple as in Florence, where there was a Centro or Conad everywhere--there are only private groceries in this neighborhood it seems, and things are more expensive. The fresh food is also very anemic looking, so we have to wait to go to the open market next week. Plus, no mozzarella, even the Mukki packaged kind! Wtf? We're going to Florence this weekend, though, so I will gorge myself on food from Conad and the central market. Ahhh.

I like Rome more this time around than I ever have before. I think the weather, which has been a pretty ideal temperature, helped a lot. My roommates are really cool, too. We're going to try to be in line at the Vatican at 730am tomorrow morning for the free Sunday. Ticket office opens at 945--this should be fun...