We decided to start our day by checking out a museum close to our hotel. We walked through some gardens that displayed all sorts of archaeological finds from thousands of years ago like funerary alters, sarcophagi and fountain bases with carvings (like in the picture, we’re standing by Mars, the Roman god of war).
Then we wandered through the inside of the museum looking at statues, frescoes, lamps, coins, earthenware, and even a warrior’s breast plate, helmet and sword from 475BC.
In the late afternoon a local man, who is an expert about the story of Rome’s neighbourhoods, took us for a walk throughout the streets within the Aurelian (city wall built around 275 AD) part of Rome and told us all sorts of interesting facts about laneways, doorways, and building corner posts along the way. There’s so much history everywhere we looked – a marble carved corner on a building, a doorway that’s over a 1,000 years old, and even how the original cobblestone were made of volcanic material.
We finally reached the busy Plazza Navona, it’s big open gathering space as big as stadium and a great gathering place. There is an obelisk in the middle that was fenced off for repair and the church of Sant’Agnese in Agone along one side (that’s the picture). We saw lots of artists painting in the square, some drawing portraits of people wandering by.
Then we headed on to see the Pantheon. This was formerly a Roman temple that was built by an emperor named Hadrian sometime around 126AD. We were told that this building is one of the best preserved ancient buildings. It has huge granite columns outside, the man said they’re called ‘Corinthian’, and inside there is a massive (unreinforced) concrete domed ceiling, and a wide open space with beautiful marble floors.
We finally rounded out our busy day with a lovey patio dinner with some new friends.
Well Behaved Kids Travel 