Quick overview: We begin this walking tour through the vestiges of ancient Rome at the Arch of Constantine with a broad explanation of the extraordinary stories inscribed on it. Afterwards, we head to the Colosseum to bring to life for you the days in which huge crowds would gather to participate in the greatest events of that epoch. We'll speak about the incredible construction techniques used, the functions of the building , the training of the gladiators and the slaves who were forced by their owners to battle it out in the arena etc. From there we go to the Roman Forum to see the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina , to understand the structure and use of the Roman temple, it's Greek and Etruscan origins, and the meaning of the sacrifices that took place in it. Then to the Temple of the Vestal Virgins with their purification rituals and white veils. We follow with the Arch Septimius Severus which bears the marks of the hatred between the two brothers. Then off to the Senate with its marvellous polychrome tiles and to the Rostra, that tribune of tribunes, from which Julius Caesar , Cicero , and other greats of the time roused the crowds with their memorable speeches and in front of it the Temple of Divus Julius where he was cremated. Then to Saturn's Temple and after to the Umbilicus Urbis , the Miliarium Aureum , etc . Finally, we will unveil to you one of the Roman Forum's greatest enigmas : how the large door of a church created within a temple has no steps to reach it. We'll finish the tour on the Capitoline Hill with a wonderful view of the forum to understand how time has changed what was once the center of the world.

Some themes of the tour : " Campo Vaccino is an out of reach place near the Colosseum where, every 7 days, one goes to the meat market situated in the middle of the ancient ruins of the pagan temples." This is how a Roman poet from the mid 1600's describes the Roman Forum . So too, in the same years, had the Colosseum been reduced to nothing more than a convenient, multi-purpose marble cave . And yet this had once been the center of the world for more than a thousand years. It's the only place in the world where civil and religious buildings stand side by side and the place where the most important events of Roman public life took place. No greater puzzle exists in which the pieces and very sense are so scattered. The tribune where J. Caesar , Cicero , Augustus and all the greats in general gave orations to decide on wars to conquer the world, the altar where the rebellious crowds erected the funereal pyre for J. Caesar's body, the " Umbelicus Mundus " the mythical place of contact between the world of the living and that of the dead, the temples where great rituals in honour of the Gods were celebrated and where the desires of the these Gods were divined by soothsayers from the insides of the beasts that were sacrificed according to typical Etruscan customs. And finally, it is in the Forum, that the first sundial , brought over from Sicily , was placed. If only there were someone who knew how to find the pieces of this puzzle and put them together to reconstruct the splendour that once was.