If you go behind the building, you will have a complete view of the Forum and further away, the Coliseum. And it is huge. I guess that everybody looking at it is imagining how it must have looked like at the time of Rome’s splendor. It was the center of Roman life, a place of trade, discussion and worship.

The first thing you notice is the Temple of Saturn, whom according to the myth, after being banished by his son Jupiter, found a haven in the area, and offering its help to the king, made the city so rich that period was to be called the Golden Age and was remembered during the Saturnals, a wild holiday time for Romans.

You can also see the Basilica Julia (dedicated to Emperor’s August’s daughter), the arch of Septimus Severus. The remains of the temple of Vesta (easily recognized by its round shape) where the flame of the city was kept alive by a cast of virgin priestress, the arch of Titus where his campaign against the Jews and the sack of Jerusalem is recorded in stone. The list just goes on and on. …

If you want to visit the ground, go down the hill and the entrance is on Via dei Fori Imperiali. The entrance is 3.50 Euros and for that price you get a guided tour.

The Roman Forum largely fills the space between the Colosseum and the enormous, starkly white marble bulk of the Vittorio Emanuele II monument. Covering five acres, it is what’s left of the very heart of Ancient Rome and its vast empire. Generations of inhabitants have picked off the nicer pieces of stone and marble for building projects elsewhere (it would be fascinating to track all the pieces down) leaving properly ruined ruins.

We shunned the opportunity to take a guided tour (having just got married, I need something else to be commitment-phobic about) in favour of self-navigation. The Forum does not favour you in this respect as few signs or plaques can be found. Most good guidebooks, however, have maps and excellent descriptions of the Forum and you should be able to orientate yourself.

Amongst the low, crumbling walls and stumps of once-proud columns there are some stunning highlights which give you a flavour of the priorities of Ancient Rome and seemed to have formed a template for most civilisations since. Two triumphal arches stand at either end of the Via Sacra; the Arch of Titus forms a magnificent entry point from the direction of the Colosseum while the Arch of Septimus Severus, with its boastful friezes celebrating military power and domination, stands tall at the northern end.

The remains that had the greatest visual impact though, were the isolated rows of Corinthian columns. They manage to appear both fragile and indestructible at the same time - all that’s left of once-grand temples. They make an arresting sight against the blue sky.

The Forum has returned to being a place of bustle and human traffic. Once the centre for trading, worship, politics, public gathering and speaking, it is now packed to the gills with tourists. And rightly so – it is one of the few historic sites of this magnitude that are free to enjoy 9a few euros for a tour). There are some pleasant spots to sit and contemplate – I recommend under the trees facing the Temple of Romulus. If you listen closely you may even hear Caesar’s last cry rising into the still air – or that may be one of the tour guides getting a little over-theatrial in the temple to Julius Caesar.

I shall return and savour this place again.

Even before Caesar's time, the forum was continuously being built. But by the end of the 5th century AD, several attacks on Rome finally caused the end of the Roman empire. The temples, basilicas, and other monuments in the Forum were abandoned and looted. For hundreds of years, this continued until the site became known as Campo Vaccino (the Cow Field). In the 19th century, it became known as the Roman Forum again.

Today, the best preserved monuments are the two triumphal arches. The rest of the ruins are mostly temples or basilicas. What a fabulous place it must have been. What an eerie feeling walking around a place where people had spent so much time thousands of years ago!

We accidentally came upon the forum from Capitoline Hill, where we got a great overview of the forum. The other entrance is across from the Colosseum. It is free and there are drinking fountains throughout the area. We went to see it lit up at night, but it is closed off then. You might be able to see it by night from Capitoline Hill, but we were by the Coloseum and to tired to make the rather long walk.