Rome 2018 (Second Visit): Final Day, Part 7

Soon we were back at Via del Corso and this time we followed it all the way south to Piazza Venezia and the Victor Emmanuel II Monument. We went up and inside the monument, though before doing anything else we stopped to use the restrooms. Then we headed up some more stairs to the highest place that was open to the public. We could have paid to use the elevator to go to the very top of the monument but the view from the free area was good enough that we didn’t feel the need to do so. From up there we could see the dome of St Peter’s Basilica and the Pantheon dome in one direction, and the ruins of the Colosseum and Roman Forum in another direction. Trajan’s Market is right nearby the monument so we had a good view of that and we could see a long ways down Via del Corso, though we couldn’t quite see all the way to Piazza del Popolo. When we came down the monument we stopped briefly at some of the ruins on the west side. The construction Victor Emmanuel II Monument in the early 1900s resulted in the destruction of a cluster of Roman and medieval structures and these ruins are what remain of the buildings that used to be on this side of the hill.