The "crypta" was an enclosed porticoed courtyard behind the stage of the Theater of Lucius Cornelius Balbus (13 B.C.). You can go underground and see the ruins, but what I thought was neat was the upstairs rooms that displayed what the historical center of Rome looked like in ancient times, in the Middle Ages, up to today and is made up of material discovered in the course of the archaeological excavations. During the different periods of use after the theatre was no longer in use, and consequently the crypta, this area was used as a dump and burial place, the site of two churches, and a religious institution to assist the needy young girls of the city -- which was called "The Confraternity of the Pitiful Virgins"! Despite its treasures, the Crypta Balbi wasn't a particularly large museum which is kind of nice -- and something I appreciated more after we went back to the Vatican Museum. There are several "wells" down which you can look to see the lowest excavated levels.
It was after 1:00 and we were starting to get hungry and thought the Jewish ghetto section of Rome might be a good place to go on this very Catholic holiday -- but unfortunately so did allot of other people. We finally found a pizza restaurant that had outdoor seating and had a so-so pizza (where we found out that pepperoni in Rome means red bell pepper, not spicy sausage!) with wine and beer. There were several very large family groups seated in our section and it was fascinating to watch as platter after platter of food was brought out and passed around the tables -- I don't know how they eat all that food without getting fat.
The Tempio di Ercole, dedicated to the hero and demi-god Hercules and made of Greek marble survives because it became a church around the 12th century. The round structure, 49 feet in diameter, is Rome's oldest marble temple, dating to the second or early first century B.C.
The other temple, the rectangular Tempio di Portunus, is dedicated to a harbor god and built in the fourth or third century B.C. from local tufa (volcanic stone).
We walked by the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin because I wanted to test Mike by having him stick his hand in the Bocca della Verita (Mouth of Truth) like in the movie "Roman Holiday", but there was a long line of people waiting to do the same thing!! We then climbed up the steep Aventino (Aventine Hill) which is one of Rome's "seven hills". It was a nice uncrowded leafy residential district with wide-ranging views of the city.
From the pretty Giardino degli Aranci (Park of the Oranges) where the oranges were not ripe for picking we had beautiful views of the Trastevere (which means across the Tiber).
At the top of the hill is the palace of the Knights of Malta which is not open to the public. There is a key hole in the doorway that you can look through and see the exact same view that we had from the Orange Garden and for some reason there was a line to look through the key hole, but no line to stand in the beautiful orange garden and see the same view -- go figure!
We walked back down the hill, through the ghetto and found a nice place to have our afternoon gelato and wine near Largo di Torre Argentina. Largo di Torre Argentina are the sunken remains of four republican-era Roman temples from the third to second century B.C. Today, the columns, walls and steps are home to a cat sanctuary, with many of the contented and fat felines walking around the ancient stonework.
After resting a little we headed back to Il Buco Ristorante where we split an order of raviolli with salsa di noci (a Ligurian walnut sauce) and Mike had an order of oso bucco with roasted potatoes and I had a bowl of riboletta soup, again with a nice bottle of Brunello di Montalcino. We again got a nice plate of cookies and vin santo wine so didn't have to order desert!
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