Arcadia Italy

BY ILARIA D'ONOFRIO, PROGRAM ASSISTANT, SUMMER 2018

The 19th of June me and some American students went to visit the famous Forum of Caesar, but it wasn’t just an ordinary guided tour.

We arrived at the entrance of the forum, next to Trajan’s Column, around 8:30 pm while the sun was setting and the sky was full of colors. The show started around 9:00 pm and it lasted an hour, and with the prize of the ticket it’s included an audio guide for each person of the group. As soon as we passed the ticket booth we went under the street “Fori Imperiali”, where there are dark and narrow passageways that are usually close to the public. Apart from the mysterious and fascinating atmosphere, it was very interesting to go through there while you listen with your headphones the explanation of Piero Angela, a famous Italian scientist and researcher and the creator of the show itself, who tells you the story of how the forum was built. The emperor Caesar called an army of workers (more than 1500 construction workers) to raze to the ground an entire neighborhood and dig out the area until the level of ancient Rome was reached. It was a huge challenge as you can imagine.

Then, after we went through this archeological area we arrived inside the Forum, where you can see the remains of the majestic Temple of Venus, built by Julius Caesar after his victory over Pompey. Unfortunately, with the passing of time the temple was almost all destroyed, but that’s the beauty of this special tour: there are lights effects that recreate for you the original structure and with the combination of music and the explanation it feels like you’re still in the ancient roman empire. The same feeling you have through the whole tour, which continues in the rest of the forum and ends with the headquarters of the Roman Senate, the Curia. There the guide focus on the story life of Caesar, the emperor who has become a symbol of the roman power until he was tragically murder in a senatorial conspiracy.

Walking inside the forum is a great way to have a new point of view of the ruins and the monuments which are around the forum, like “Altar of the Fatherland” (known even as the National Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II) and Trajan’s Market. Don’t forget that we were there at the beginning of the night, so the colors of the sky that reflect on the ruins made everything magical.

In the end everybody enjoyed the tour, took a bunch of pictures and had the chance to discover the history behind this beautiful and historical place. So if you ever get the chance to be in Rome during the spring/summer period, this is a tour that you can’t miss.