Wherein We Go to the Circus

Circus Maximus

There were no chariots in the Circus Maximus today.  Over 6.5 football fields in length, it stretches all the way to the far trees on the horizon.  On the left is the Palatine Hill which is closed.  We walked through the length of the Circus to the Tiber and then over into our old neighborhood of Trastevere. There, we thought of food shopping in our familiar Conad Market.  But the line was significant and we opted to go elsewhere.

Selfie on the Tiber.  Proof of our good health.

It seems that the Victor Emmanuel Monument is a geographical marker for us.  Sitting high atop the Capitoline Hill it is visible from nearly everywhere.  We often use it as a guide for heading home.  Today as we passed it on our way home, I took a picture of the palazzo which was the final home of Napoleon's mother.  She had been exiled from France after the fall of her son and lived here until her death.  If you look carefully at the palazzo on the right, you will see a projecting green covered balcony on the second floor.  It is here that she would sit and watch the activity in the piazza that fronts where the Victor Emmanuel Monument now sits. She had the balcony covered so she could sit unseen. She was of a minor Italian nobility family which probably accounts for her Italian welcome and residency.

Napoleon I's Mother's Balcony

Other pictures at flicker show our salmon colored apartment building sitting behind the Colosseum.  flickr