Italian Reflections: The Platypus Travels Part VII

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The Gardens of the Temple of Vesta with Je ne sais qua behind them.

The chief memories I have of the Roman Forum are of old stone and wild flowers.  The citizens of Rome strip-mined the Empire's political center and by the early Modern Era it was a trash dump.  Nineteenth and twentieth century archeologists are responsible for excavating the site and its appearance today.  Sadly, there wasn't much of the old grandeur to recover -a few isolated columns and heaps of broken stone.  Nature, however, has added her own adornment to the ruined capital.  Wildflowers cover the site making it one of the pleasanter places we visited.





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