Palentine Hill

After we did the Colosseum, we headed up to Palentine Hill, which is actually quite important in in Roman hisory. This is where we learn the story of Remus and Romulus.
According to legend, King Numitor's was killed by his younger brother, Amulius. Amulius then forced Numitor's only daughter, Rhea Silvia, to become a Vestal Virgin.  The Vestal Virgins are sworn to celibacy for thirty years and this would ensure that Numitor woud have no heirs and no claim to the thrown.
However, Reah Silvia got pregnant! Imagine the surprise (and shock!)! The punishment for a Vestal Virgin getting knocked up is death. Rhea was smart and problaimed that the God Mars (God of war) had snuck in late one night, seduced her (or forced her) and impregnanted her. Well, no one wants to piss of the God of War by killing his children, so Rhea was allowed to give birth to twins, Remus and Romulus.

When the twins were born, they were ordered to be killed (isn't that the same as killing mommy before she has them?) but the slave showed mercy and put them in a basket and sent them down the river. Is anyone else seeing a coorelation to another story of a baby that was supposed to be killed but was sent down a river? Moses maybe? Anyway...the story goes that a she-wolf rescued them and raised them. It is more likely that a prostitute found them and raised them, but I guess no one wanted to think that the founders of Rome were brought up by a prostitute. Yeah, it makes more sense that a wolf raised them. LOL
As Remus and Romulus grew older, they went to see an Oracle (fortune teller) who told them that one of them would be the founder of Rome. The boys decided to have a contest to see which of them it would be. Romulus stood on Palentine Hill and Remus stood on Aventine Hill and they counted vultures. Stupid, I know.  They disagreed on who the winner was (wouldn't you argue it?) and Remus murdered his brother Romulus and went on to found Rome, naming it after himself. He built his Palace on top of Palentine Hill. Palentine was the word for palace back then, I guess.

Since then, every King built their home on theis hill, adding to it along the way. In the first century BC, Caesar Augustus proclaimed himself Emporor of all of Rome and built an even bigger Palace.

Circuis of Domition. They held races and small games here.

Our tour guide joked that this was the first, "home entertainment system."

There are still areas where you can see that the floors were all marble. The guide poured water on it here to show us how spectacular the colors in the marble were.

Mussilin moved in. His crest is still on the wall.

Mussilini House.

One of the court yards

We bought a book that shows how all of this would have looked back then. Now it is just bits and pieces of ruins. It must have been quite spectacular!

After the Roman Empire fell, during the Middle Ages, the Popes wanted the marble and the statues to grace the churches so they took it from these areas. Our tour guide also joked that another word for renaissance was "remodeling."

What is left of a statue. As you can see, this is only the toe. Imagine how massive the entire statue would have been!

At this point, we lost our tour guide and wondered the ruins on our own, which wasn't nearly as exciting or informational. LOL We took some pics anyway!

Pretty little alcove

Did I ever happen to mention that we were in Rome on the Sunday that they made Pope John Paul II a saint? Or they are working on it..something like that.

We took the subway. This is the train. Isn't it pretty? Now THAT is a totally different form of art than what we have been looking at. LOL

The subway. What a cluster mess.

This is on the subway.

This is me trying REALLY hard not to have a panic attack. Yes, this is what crowds do to me. 

Getting OFF the train.

After all of this today (both the Colosseum and the Palentine Hill) we were exhausted, so we went back to the hotel to rest before heading out for dinner.

For dinner, we went around the corner to a little place. The Ristorantes here are extremely small, only holding maybe 8-10 tables.

Tim...silly man.

Dinner. Lamb that literally fell off the bone! So Good!

Cannolis... it's like a pasta casserole.

In Italy, you can buy wine by the bottle or by the half bottle. If you by it in half bottle size, they bring it to you in a cute little carafe.

I asked the Ristorante owner if I might have a picture with him. You would have thought I offered a dying man a glass of water!

I think he might be in love!

He was definitely in love after I kissed his cheek!

We exchanged emails so I can send him the pics!

When we left, Tim told me to say the following to him; "Ti voglio bene!" He damn near melted all over me! He told Tim that he would trade 3 women if Tim would leave me there. LOL OMG! What the hell did I actually say?

What a wonderful day!