A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum

Well, no nothing funny did, but plenty of interest before my first target, the Roman Forum. That did seem to be the place to start.

Firstly, a walk down the Tiber on a lovely bright morning.

Then cutting in I had a wander into a church. Rome isn't short of churches, many built on Roman remains. Needless to say we could do with fewer churches and more temples now. This is San Nicola in Carcere, built on 3 republican temples. The church needless to say is quite good at nicking stuff from its older and more restrained predecessors. In this case all the columns down the nave. Nice ceiling though.

The inevitable cheesy nativity scene which can be found in almost every church. This one is rather restrained  Many have ludicrous quantities of farm hands and animals in close attention.

Theatro di Marcello

The Vittorio - the massive monument to celebrate Italian unification commonly known as the wedding cake. Much derided for its bombasity, I don't really see it as the worst eyesore going. 

Opposite is the rather more attractive and retrained block formed of the church of the San Marco and the Palazzo Venezia.

When I say the Forum, there are really a whole set of fora, so one passes by the Imperial Fora of Hadrian, Augustus, Nerva, Caesar, etc before getting to the Republican Forum.