Roman Holiday

ROME, Italy!

This is the sort of thing that it USED to look like (this particular building is actually fairly modern and serves in part as a museum for a portion of the multitude of sculptures, etc. that remain from ancient times).

And this is generally what it looks like now. On camera the ruins look like rubble so I won't be including many photos. But what the pictures can't impress upon you is the enormity of those pillars. Those pure marble cylinders would take two pairs of arms to encircle them and the height reaches about 3 stories . . . and this isn't even a big temple. But you really have to stand in front of it in order to experience the impressive presence. 

Now here's a building that doesn't make your imagination work so hard. 

The Pantheon. 

Roman engineers of 100 AD, you did your job well. So well that your dome is still standing sturdily after all these years. To praise the engineering a bit more I'd like to add that the proportions of the sides of the building to the dome are designed so that if the building continued underground it would make a perfect sphere. 

Standing in this room increased my respect for math 7 fold. 

One of the reasons it continued to be protected and preserved is because it is no longer 'for many gods' (pan = many, theo = god), instead it belongs to The Roman Catholic Church. 

Why the opening at the top of the dome? A common explanation is that it symbolizes a gateway to heaven where most of the Roman/Greek gods had a dwelling place. 

What about rain? That's why there's a drain (the original) in the middle of the (original) marble floor. 

Trevi Fountain. 

An incredibly difficult place to take a picture where you and the fountain are the only ones in it because it is one of THE tourist spots in Rome. Understandably, this was worth the crowd because the water does flow in a beautiful and natural way and the sculptures are a vivid scene of man's efforts to tame water (symbolized by the wild horse figures). 

 But it was the Romans who knew how to tame the water, they had a 14 mile long aqueduct bring water to this spot for some of the city's aquatic needs. 

The Colosseum. 

This colossal greets you when you step onto the 'main road of ruins' as we called it in ancient city center. To me there is something about the raw, imposing stone that is more striking than our modern buildings that may be of the same size. And there is a sort of dignity in it's 'ruined' state-- as if it is saying "I've been through a lot". 

Some people wish they could talk to animals, that would be nice, but I think it would be more fascinating to hear a story from a stone such as one of these.

Inside view of The Colosseum. 

The flooring is obviously a modern addition but on the right you can see a portion of the marble seats that would have covered all the sides. And under the flooring of wood and sand are those famous passage ways that once had gladiators and all sorts of wild animals channeled through them. 

Tourism is thirsty work, but thankfully these fountains carrying clean water are there to quench your thirst. Supposedly in the hot months people line up to get a drink, and you can actually find these fountains in various forms all through out the city. 

We drank from one for the experience and it was really wonderful tasting and cool. 

But, we didn't want to ruin our week by accidentally introducing some ancient 

micro-organism that our city - water selves couldn't handle so we stuck to the Italian water with a sealed cap and label. 

It might not look like much now, but anyone who knows Roman history will tell you that this marks a very famous spot. The ruins of this fountain area are legendary as the very ground where Romulus tilled the earth, starting a chain of events that launched into one of the most extensive ancient empires to rule the Western world. 

Just around the corner from the previous picture you can see a site like this one. It comes from The Palantine which is a hill with a long history and a lot of ruins that seem to rise up out of the ground among the trees. 

The trees of Rome were something that we found almost as enchanting as the ruins themselves. They were like nothing either of us had ever seen before and they were everywhere giving off an atmosphere of Mediterranean climate and ancient feeling foliage. 

Speaking of ancient, this sheep really threw me for a loop with it's long busy tail. As a product of a modern and non-agricultural society I had no idea that sheep ever came with long tails. A quick google search informed me that tails on sheep are perfectly natural, and that the ancients used to breed for a thicker tail so that they could have the extra animal fat for cooking. 

That's right. Patches of Roman marble flooring. Some of it just lying there exposed to the tread of tourists beyond count. At first I was careful to walk around it, by the end of the trip I'd walked many a step on ancient marble. 

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Rome is overwhelming. People have spent lifetimes studying it and still there are stones left unturned, but I don't want this blog post to last a lifetime, so here's a string of photos for you to enjoy with minimal commentary. 

Pons Aelius. 134 AD saw the completion of the first construction. Of course there has been maintenance and reconstruction done to it since then. 

Rooftop gardens provide green spots for these city dwellers. 

Carbonara in it's birth place!