Students and staff from Classics, Religious Studies and Philosophy departments all enjoyed a wonderful trip to Rome during the summer.

On the first day they set out for The Ara Pacis, the stunning altar of the Augustan Peace, built by the Roman Senate to honour Augustus in 13BCE. This is a core part of the Classics course, staff  were impressed by the details students could give of it; many students expressed shock at how big and impressive it was in the flesh. The day ended with wonderful Italian food in and around the stunning Piazza Navona. 

On the second day they travelled to Ostia Antica. Once the port of Rome, this city was abandoned when Claudius built a better harbour and the Tiber moved. The city is now like a much quieter Pompeii with buildings, forums, temples, mosaics, toilets, roads, inscriptions and painted plaster walls. 

The following day they started at the baths of Caracalla. A leisure complex of multiple pools, libraries and gymnasia spreading across an area of several football pitches and now including the recovered walls of a luxury villa with full colour frescoes. The sheer scale of imperial building and generosity was astonishing. There was a degree of competition over who could wield the Augustus themed flag.

The day continued with a walk past the Circus Maximus, where Guns and Roses had played the night before as Roma buildings continue to entertain and thrill, to the Trastevere area for lunch (the tiramisu was heaven). A quick walk across Rome past the Theatre of Marcellus brought them to the Colosseum, the Forum and the Palatine Hill. The astonishing Colosseum (where no students carved their names!) is a monument to the brutal entertainments of 80,000 Romans and thrills and disturbs in equal measure. 

This was followed by a tour of the Forum, the beating heart of Rome and home of the temples, basilicas and Senate. Students even paused at the temple of the Divine Julius Caesar, where flowers are still left. They concluded with a walking tour of the Palatine; an imperial palace complex of breathtaking scale (it even includes a private race-track).

The final day was a day of museums. They began at the Capitoline Museum; the collection was stunning and included the famous Capitoline wolf and Marcus Aurelius on his horse. The day continued at the Vatican with a chance to see the Prima Porta Augustus. This is a statue they study in class and it adorns the wall outside F15, but nothing compares with the real thing.

The Vatican kept on giving: the splendours of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, the awesome St Peter’s Basilica and many students chose to tackle the 500 stairs to the very top of the Dome.

Around all of these sightseeing tours they also saw so much more: the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, The Mausoleum of Augustus, The Res Gestae Divi Augusti (our set text), the Pantheon and several cute cats. 

New students will have the opportunity to visit next year for more adventures.