Any trip to Rome should really include some Roman sites – as in ancient Rome. There are numerous sites across the city, but as it was my first trip to Rome the easiest thing to do was the Forum and Colosseum. Oh, and a quick travel tip – go early (obvious) and buy your combined ticket to both at the Forum entrance – everyone seems to queue at the Colosseum for a ticket, with your pre-bought ticket you can just walk smugly by.
For photography I had the sturdy Ricoh Kr-5 with a roll of Oriental Seagull 100. After one shot, it was obvious that the Ricoh’s batteries were done – I’d no metering so it was Sunny 16. And as it was very, very sunny, basically F16 at 1/125 or 1/250 for toning it down a bit.
The forum was at the heart of ancient rome – market places, temples, government buildings, courts – if it was happening in Rome, it happened here. The remains date from around the 7th century BC to around the 3rd century AD. The sense of history and place is amazing and more than I’m capable of describing, but for a tourist with a camera it’s a delight to take a slow walk around the ruins and try and capture some essence of the place. Even on a 40 year old camera with a dodgy meter.
The Forum is well worth a visit, and actually makes for a much nicer photo walk than the Colosseum – which isn’t too shabby either.
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