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Rome Choice 2: ANCIENT AND IMPERIAL ROME A HALF DAY Day 3: Monday, August 11, 2008 & Day 4: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 According to the legend Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus (the two brothers were nursed by a she-wolf) over the famed Seven Hills. By luxury motor coach you will be taken to Piazza Venezia, dominated by a large memorial to King Victor Emanuel II (the first king of a united Italy). You’ll pass by Capitoline Hill, the most Victor Emanuel Monument famous and highest of the Seven Hills of Rome, the site of Rome’s City Hall. Driving by the well preserved pagan temples of the 1st Century BC you reach the Circus Maximus, the largest Roman circus. It served as a model for all the others. If you remember the movie Ben-Hur this is where the famous chariot race took place. Proceeding by two of the seven hills, you will arrive at the Arch of Constantine, a notable example of Roman artistic genius. The arch was erected in 315 AD to celebrate Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome, and his victory over his brother Maxentius in their civil war. Then to the Basilica of St. Peter’s in Chains, where you will admire another Michelangelo masterpiece: The Statue of Moses. The church was constructed to protect the chains which bound St. Peter as prisoner, when he was sent to Rome from Constantinople. Legend tells us Michelangelo’s that these chains, once placed next to other chains that held St. Moses Peter prisoner in Rome, welded themselves together forming one singular chain which you will see today. Next explore the famed Colosseum from inside. In 80 AD, under Titus, the Colosseum was inaugurated with 100 days of celebrations and spectacles. Fights between men and beasts, races and mock naval battles, gladiatorial contests (the best-loved spectacle of the Romans) took place in the arena for years. The Colosseum held 45,000 spectators in four stories of marble seats. In later centuries it was subjected to a terrible fate: enormous blocks of travertine were hacked off it to be used for other buildings, among them St. Peter’s Basilica. Such was the ego of Renaissance Man! The next stop is the Roman Forum, which was the first political and religious center of Rome. Roman civilization began in the Forum: This was the Roman Senate’s House. Where Cato the Elder railed against Carthage, Pompey was appointed to oppose Spartacus, Caesar was murdered, and Mark Antony called to Friends, Romans, and Countrymen for vengeance. The forum dates back to Julius Caesar himself. If you walk the streets of the ancient forum The Ancient Roman Forum you will literally walk where Caesar walked! Then onto the Piazza Navona with her three monumental fountains for lunch at another famous Roman restaurant: Tre Scalini just across the piazza from your friends at the Quattro Fiumi.