Day 11 - Altar of the Fatherland

If you go from Piazza del Popolo and follow Via del Corso south you'll end up in front of this magnificent building. Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, also known as Altare della Patria (Altar of the Fatherland), was built in honor of Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of unified Italy. It was designed in 1885 and completed 50 years later, in 1935. It was a bit of a controversy when it was built, mainly because it destroyed a large area of the Capitoline Hill where a medieval neighborhood was situated, but it was also regarded as unnecessarily large and pompous.

At the monument you'll find the tomb of an unknown world war one soldier. It's right below a statue of the goddess Roma (the yellow part in the lower center), and beside it you'll find an eternal flame. Inside are various national relics like flags, weapons, decorated chests. For a fee you can get to the top terrace with a stunning view of the city below. 

As you may have gathered, we first came here on our first day. At that time I had not yet started taking my medicine, so naturally I was exhausted from the walking. Therefore, we didn't really "see" the monument that day. We wandered up the bottom stairs and went inside for a quick look, but since I was quite tired, we quickly went on our way to find a nice place to sit down, have a bite, and recharge a bit before heading "home". We went back another day though. But in the interest of not mucking up the most logical photo order too much, more shots from this place will follow shortly.

/MrsHjort