On Saturday morning we knew there was no chance of finding a better place to have breakfast than Mercato Trionfale. We got out of the guesthouse as early as we could and headed there directly, taking a quick pass around to examine any booths we might have missed the previous morning. The seafood vendor had a lot more to offer this time, probably because it was now the weekend. We got a whole baked fish and linguine with clams, but we were too early for maki rolls. We bought some tomatoes and a porchetta sandwich from the deli and we were fueled uo for another long day of walking. 
We had found the metro quite easy to use the previous evening and opted to use it again to get to the Colosseum, which was the sight that was furthest from us. We had taken the tour of the Colosseum ten years earlier and found it somewhat underwhelming so our plan was just for the kids to see it from the outside. There was a huge crowd of people in the area of the massive structure and a long line waiting to enter for the tour. When the Colosseum was still intact it contained eighty arches on each of the three lower floors and a progression of Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns on successive levels.
Just fifty meters from the Colosseum the magnificent Arch of Constantine stood in solitary splendor. I couldn't remember having taken note of it on our first visit to the Colosseum. The ornate triumphal arch was built in the early fourth century to celebrate Constantine's victory over Maxentius, his major rival for control of the Western Roman Empire. Many of the statues and other decorative elements of the arch were repurposed from older monuments.
Even though we weren't planning to go inside the Colosseum I did want to spend time inside the Forum and walk to the top of Palatine Hill. My kids had all learned about the legend of Romulus and Remus and I thought it would be fun for them to be able to stand in the very place where Romulus had built his walls and slain his brother. I remembered the Forum as being the most immersive, atmospheric ruin experience in Rome. We walked up a path to a line of people that appearing to be waiting to enter the Forum, assuming we would be able to buy tickets there. It moved slowly and it was almost half an hour before I got far enough to find out that I was on a ticket holders line and that I would have to buy the actual tickets at a kiosk down by the Colosseum. At this point we clearly didn't have time to wait on another line and there was no guarantee we would be able to get an entrance time in the short term, so we decided to abandon the whole idea and head towards the city center. This was the first time I had screwed something up on the trip and I was annoyed with myself although it was far from a disastrous turn of events. I'm pretty sure we'll be back in Rome again before too many years have gone by. On the bright side we were able to get some decent looks at the Forum from above as we walked past it.
As we walked north we ran into the enormous piazza that houses the Vittorio Emanuele II monument, certainly the most massive and striking of Rome's many sights if not the most beloved. This dramatic marble commemoration of Italian unification was constructed in neoclassical style to suggest a metaphorical bridge between the country's history as the center of the Roman empire and a modern position among the world's most advanced nations. Due to its position at the intersection of the major roads and pedestrian trails that pass through the center of Rome the monument is impossible to miss. Romans have a love-hate relationship with the "Vittoriano" which is probably weighted towards the hate side, due to the structure's grandiosity and perceived garishness. "The Typewriter" and "The Wedding Cake" are probably among the least unflattering nicknames that have been bestowed upon the monument. Across the heavily trafficked Via dei Fori Imperiali were Trajan's Column and the eighteenth century church Santissimo Nome di Maria al Foro Traiano, another of the many Roman churches with a dome inspired by St. Peter's Basilica.
Continuing north we passed by the Galleria Sciarra but I had forgotten it was only open on weekdays. Next up was the Fontana di Trevi which had been largely obscured by renovation work on our last visit. The eighteenth century fountain is the epicenter of overtourism in central Rome and being there at around lunchtime on a Sunday probably didn't help. Nevertheless, I have to say it could have been worse. We only had to wait a short time to take our photos at the coveted railing spot on the upper level and people were generally considerate. Architect Nicola Salvi's masterpiece depicts the Titan Oceanus on a shell-shaped chariot being drawn by sea horses and tritons.
We had just enough time for a quick visit to the Spanish Steps, another one of those sights in every article about the Top Ten Things to See in Rome. The correct name of the long travertine staircase is La Scalinata di Trinita dei Monti, which translates to "The Stairs to the Trinity of the Mountains", referring to the sixteenth century Renaissance church at the top. The Spanish Steps nickname was coined by an unknown Englishman long ago in reference to the Piazza di Spagna at the base of the staircase and the simpler name proved more popular with international visitors. I was the only one eager to make the one hundred and thirty-five step scramble to the top of the hill while the others relaxed around the boat-shaped Bernini fountain in the piazza. 
We walked back towards the center along Rome's equivalent of Fifth Avenue, Via dei Condotti. The pedestrian street was lined with outposts of all the most famous European luxury brands. At Largo Goldoni we admired Giuseppe Penone's avant garde art installation Foglie Di Pietra which has stood in the square since 2017. Two scraggly and leafless bronze trees support a large block of marble that seems like it might crash to the ground at any moment. Most interpretations of the installation suggest a benign rumination on the juxtaposition of man and nature, but I felt like the apparent lifelessness and weakness of the trees bearing this perilous load was probably not unintentional. 
One of the best things about traveling with the kids is that they are continuously getting older and changing, so I always have to find fresh experiences to explore the new people they have become since the last trip. A couple of years ago I wouldn't have considered doing a cooking class with all three of them but Italy seemed like the perfect place to try it for the first time. I had booked a pasta and gelato making class for the five of us through a major Rome tour aggregator called Walks in Rome and now we were arriving punctually at twelve thirty at the solid wooden green door of a typical faded nineteenth century residential building on the outside of Piazza Navona. We were excited and ready to go but no one answered when I pressed the buzzer or used the brass knocker. I tried this for a few minutes and was getting rather irritated, as the reservation had been quite clear about where to go and when to arrive. As I was fumbling through my emails figuring out what number to call I saw Mei Ling stepping into the building. She had just pushed the door open and walked through, an idea that had not occurred to me whatsoever. That's another good reason why it's nice to have a partner when traveling.
There was no one on the ground level but we found the reception for the school up the stairs. They didn't seem surprised at all to see us walk in unannounced and checked us into our class which began shortly thereafter. We got started with the gelato which was a much more involved process than I would have expected for confection which I had considered basically synonymous with ice cream. We surrendered our completed product to the freezer and then got to work on the pasta. This was even more fun for the kids than using the hand blender on the gelato mix because they got to knead and roll the dough before feeding it through the pasta cutter. I really liked our instructor, a typical Italian guy who spoke perfect English, because he was a little bit curt with the kids when they were being particularly obtuse instead of babying them. Just like any kids they don't always listen to or follow instructions and I don't let them get away with it either. He wasn't harsh enough to bring them down but I was happy to see him establish an atmosphere that this was a school and not a play area. Eventually the pasta was cooked and the gelato was frozen and it was time to consume our creations. We were each served a huge bowl of pasta which presented a slight problem since Mei Ling and I are both in calorie restriction mode and Spenser is the only one of our kids who can eat like a champ. We made a game effort but I would say that between us we only got through two bowls worth. The instructor was mortified and I tried my best to explain there was nothing wrong with the pasta but we just couldn't eat more. The kids did better with the gelato but Mei Ling and I didn't touch ours and we had to rush out early to make it to our timed entrance at the Pantheon.
In 2014 we had relaxed in the Piazza della Rotonda outside the Pantheon before dinner but we hadn't gone inside. We had expected to be back at some future day and now ten years later here we were. The Pantheon stands with the Colosseum as the two most remarkable and well-known remnants of ancient Rome. The existing building was completed in the early second century after its two predecessors of similar appearance burned to the ground, but the inscription on the architrave credits the original designer Marcus Agrippa. Although the Pantheon is quite imposing and remarkable, it would have been even more so in ancient Rome with its original marble façade and gilded bronze dome.
The most famous architectural feature of the Pantheon is its oculus, an eight meter circular opening at the apex of the dome. The dome itself is a remarkable feat of engineering, the largest unreinforced concrete dome that has ever existed. It is believed that the main reason the dome never collapsed was the use of a concrete formulation containing volcanic ash that formed crystals which prevented the spread of microscopic cracks. To the Romans the oculus symbolized a window to the heavens which allowed the gods to be present in the temple. It also significantly lightened the weight and stress on the dome and acts as a sundial. The sunlight passing through the oculus casts a beam of light that steadily migrates from one side of the Pantheon to the other over the course of the day. At midday on the equinoxes the beam illuminates the Pantheon's entrance. 
By now we had gotten somewhat weary of the crowds of tourists in the center and the heat was getting oppressive as well. We decided to seek refuge from both in the Museum of Light, an interesting exhibit that sadly shut down permanently a couple of months after our visit. The focus of the museum was on optical illusions and the history of science and inventions related to light. Like any science museum the exhibits were hit and miss but the kids would just move on from the things that were of limited interest and focus on the ones that appealed to them. The entire cost of admission would have been worthwhile just for the incredible animation on the second floor in which figures from reproductions of well-known paintings seemingly came to life and hopped from one painting to another. I still have no idea how the illusion was accomplished.
Compared with the hassle of the buses a half hour walk to the Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore didn't seem that bad. The basilica was the last of the limited number of churches in Rome that I had marked down as being worth visiting. Santa Maria Maggiore was built in the fifth century to commemorate the proclamation of Mary as the mother of God at the Council of Ephesus. It is one of only four major basilicas, all of which are in Rome, and is best known for the colorful and intricate mosaics within the nave that depict scenes from the Old Testament. When we stood in the center of the nave the glitter of all the gold and the amazing detail of the mosaics was overwhelming. It was a good thing that the church lived up to its billing because the half hour slog uphill through the afternoon heat was a lot tougher than I had expected.
By now we had crossed the entire center of Rome and were almost at the main train station, Roma Termini. It was perfect timing because Rome's solitary food hall, Mercato Centrale, was inside the station. The buildings around Termini were more modern than in the center and tended to have a design with ashlar stone façades on the lower floors and plaster above. It was a very commercial area with a lot of food stores, hotels, and restaurants. A lot of the stores sold souvenir bags of multicolored pasta in various shapes. One popular variety was shaped like penises, much to Ian's delight.
Mercato Centrale was a much better food hall than I expected, considering its location inside a train terminal. Mercato Centrale was opened in 2016 by the same company that created the market of the same name in Florence in 2014. The food hall was quite large with a wide selection of prepared food from steaks to pasta as well as gourmet ingredients and mouthwatering desserts. One of the reasons we love food halls is being able to walk around and figure out what tempts us most before we decide what to eat. Mercato Centrale had more than enough choices for several different meals.
On Sunday morning Mercato Trionfale was closed but I knew about a farmers market near the Circus Maximus that was only open on weekends. Farmers markets are called campagna amica in Italy and they often take place on Sundays when the daily markets are closed. We were headed out of town anyway that day so we retrieved the car from the garage and drove through the center which was a hair-raising experience. When we were pedestrians we had mostly stayed away from the heavily trafficked streets but now we had no choice but to jockey for position with the aggressive and unforgiving Roman drivers. I had to be constantly thinking two steps ahead to be sure I was in the correct lane ahead of the next shift in direction. As we approached the market the traffic thinned out and we passed by interesting buildings such as the ancient church San Nicola in Carcere and the medieval brick tower of Casina dei Pierleoni.
Thank God it was early on a Sunday morning so there were open parking spots close to the market. Campagna Amica del Circo Massimo was very different from Mercato Trionfale with a strong emphasis on specialty and gourmet items from produce to prepared food. There were restaurants as well that looked very appetizing but they wouldn't open for another two hours and we already had a tight schedule for our road trip to the lakes. There weren't many customers yet at nine in the morning and the vendors who spoke English were eager to discuss their products. We got the kids chocolate cornetti and found a few other things for ourselves and then ate breakfast at a solitary table just outside the market. It was a pretty efficient way to settle breakfast before leaving the boundaries of Rome for the first time on this trip. 
This featured blog entry was written by zzlangerhans from the blog Fledgling Explorers.
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