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There are a few times in my life where the first site of something has made me nearly dizzy with a sense of accumulated history. I got that feeling the first time I saw Mao's portrait over the Forbidden City, the first time I saw the Great Wall and, just for variety, the first time I saw the Mississippi River. I certainly got it when I walked up the Capitoline steps and saw the ruins of Rome's Forum for the first time.

Visible in this picture are the remains of the temple of Saturn (at center) the front of which bears an incription of the motto of Rome, "Senatus Populus Que Romanus" (Senate and People of Rome - SPQR). At left is the arch of Setimius Severus, which partially obscures the reconstructed Curia (Republican senate house). At the right edge is the Palatine hill where once was one of the founding villages of Rome and later the Imperial palace complex, looking toward the Forum from one side and the Circus Maximus at the other. In the background are the Temple of Antoninus (spared destruction in the middle ages as it was consecrated into a church), the remains of the immense Basilica of Maxentius and, just peeking over the very back, the Colosseum.