Italy Part 10: Rome - Foro Romano

Our first full day in Rome, we went to see the ruins of the Foro Romano. According to the official tourist website of Rome,

"Many honorary monuments were erected in the area of the Forum in the Imperial Age;
the last of which is the column dedicated in 608 AD to emperor Foca.
The Forum was then abandoned and filled in by a thick layer of earth,
becoming a pasture known as Campus Vaccinus.
Some temples were transformed into churches,
allowing their preservation in the course of time.
During the Renaissance the area of the Forum Romanum
was used as a marble and stone quarry."

There were lots of ruins and crumbling arches; not much is left intact.

The Temple of Julius Caesar was built by Augustus on the location of Caesar's funeral pyre
and where Marc Antony gave his eulogy.
Most of the temple is gone; this memorial and a few broken walls are all that remains.

The hill with all the trees is the Palatine Hill, where the rich lived in their palaces.

The Colosseo - along with the Arch of Titus, center foreground - can be seen from the Palatine Hill.

Also located on the Palatine Hill, and recently rediscovered, is Augustus' house. Much of it has yet to be excavated, but we were able to go in parts of it and view several rooms and the restored murals on the walls: