Circus Maximus

Advantages: A quiet spot to escape the tourist frenzy of Rome
Disadvantages: Quiet!

...on our way to the Circus Maximus. What a swizz! The Circus Maximus bears as much resemblance to the Big Top as a hippodrome does to a rhinoceros. Why it's nothing more than a huge open space where spectators used to watch races and such in Roman times. It dates back to Etruscan times when it was first used to entertain the masses but its heyday arrived around 50BC when Julius Caesar had the builders in and enlarged the place to accommodate an ...
...surroundings are pretty photogenic too. Circus Maximus is a park these days, but not a delicate, intricately planted park. Nor is it an elegant promenading type of park...ditto a wildlife have. It's just a big expanse of grass (and not very good grass at that) with a few trees around the perimeter. However, a little sprinkle of imagination and you can almost hear the screaming roar of the crowd, the thundering chunder of the chariots and the crack ... Read review

Advantages: see opinion
Disadvantages: see opinion

The Circus Maximus is best viewed from one of Rome's great hills, the Palantine. From here you can see down onto the immense stretch of grass, where crowds of just under a quarter of a million people would come to watch the chariot racing. They used to do it in a bit more splendour than you can now see. Back then, there would have been row upon row of marble seats, where as now there are just the raised and grassy banks remaining. It takes a bit ...
...Augustus and erected in the Circus Maximus. But they moved it. It's not there now. You've got to go the Piazza del Popolo to see that. So there you have it. Not one of the most stunning sights you'll see in Rome, which, let's face it, is spoiled for them, but just try and imagine what went on here all those thousands of years ago, and it does get a bit more impressive. Sadly, no signs of any statues to Charlton Heston.. ... Read review