We woke up at 8:30 am and had coffee in our room. Then we headed downstairs for complimentary hotel breakfast. It was a good breakfast with croissants, cereal, American coffee, orange juice and yogurt. Then we got ready and left for our Ancient Rome exploration day. We asked our hotel reception and they guided us to a tram that runs right outside our hotel. We got a transit pass for unlimited rides.
The tram took us directly to our first stop, the Colosseum. We had bought our tickets online so we skipped the ticket purchasing line that would've meant waiting in line for at least an hour. Once inside, we saved some more time since we didn't have to stand in the audio guide line as we were using our downloaded audio guide by the world famous Rick Steves. The Colosseum was essentially a gigantic stadium where gladiators fought in front of crowds of up to 50,000 people. The Roman Empire spanned a 1000 years in history starting in 500 BC and ending around 500 AD. During the first 500 years, the empire was rising and expanding, in the next 200 years, it was at its peak and then the last 300 years were in decline. The Colosseum was built during the peak years and took 10 years to build after construction was started around 72 AD by the Flavian family. Booty and loot from suppressing the uprising of Jews in Palestine in 70 AD was used for the construction. Romans were excellent engineers but weren't too artistic so the aesthetic design of the Colosseum is borrowed from the more sophisticated Greeks. Combining Greek classical design with Roman engineering and slave labour and riches of the Jews, this grand amphitheater was created as the biggest of the 250 amphitheaters in the Roman Empire. Gladiator games had three acts: first, animals from all over the kingdom would be paraded after letting them through in the main arena through the 80 doors and they would fight with and kill each other. Act two was the execution of prisoners of war and criminals, often in creative ways like dressing them up as heroes and killing them as the heroes had died or throwing them to lions without clothes. The final and third act was the main draw of the games: the gladiator fights. Gladiators were professional "athletes" and would use their weapon of choice to fight. If a gladiator fell down and was at the mercy of the standing rival, the Roman Emperor would be asked if he wanted the fallen killed or not and the Emperor would give his decision with a thumbs up or thumbs down. Sometimes an Emperor would leave the decision to the spectators who would vote using thumbs up or down. As Rome was a hierarchical society, seating in this ancient stadium was also based on your class in the society - the Emperor had his own throne, the senators and dignitaries had the front row seats, the other nobles and army officials had middle tier seats and the back rows were open to general public. When the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as the official state religion, the games became politically incorrect and were finally banned in 435 AD and the Colosseum's use diminished. For the next thousand years, it was used sporadically as makeshift apartments/shops, a church, cemetery and a place of refuge during civil unrest. A big earthquake in 1349 AD caused the south side to be damaged but the north side has all three floors intact. Thankfully, in the 16th Century, a series of Christian popes took pity towards the crumbling pagan structure and asked the site to be preserved in memory of the Christians who had been executed in the arena while the Roman Empire was officially still Pagan and worshipped its some 30,000 gods.
Next, we saw the Arch of Constantine that is a huge gate right next to the Colosseum. It was dedicated to Emperor Constantine who is very popular in history since his decision to adopt Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire around 312 AD sowed the seeds for Christianity to spread far and wide throughout the world. The decision married church and state so strongly that toward the decline of the Roman Empire, the Senators became the bishops, orators became priests, basilicas became churches and the Roman Emperor became the Pope.
Then we entered the Roman Forum. These are ruins of the large Capitol area of Ancient Rome that had the Senate building, Temple of Julius Caesar, an impressive temple with 50 meter long columns dedicated to another notable Emperor Antonius Pius and his wife Faustina, the residence of the Vestal Virgins (more about them below), the Temple of Vesta, the Temple of Saturn and the basilica of Constantine (more on that below).
During the first half of the Roman Empire, Rome was a "Republic" - ruled by the aristocracy via an elected Senate and in the second half, Rome was ruled by a dictator. Julius Caesar was the first Roman dictator and perhaps the most famous of all ancient Roman Emperors. As mentioned earlier, the Romans were pagans and had over 30,000 gods that they worshipped. It wasn't uncommon for a successful Emperor (and their wife) to be added to this ever-increasing list of gods after they died. Antonius Pius, his wife Faustina and Julius Caesar are such examples, therefore they have temples dedicated to them in the Roman Forum.
Their pagan beliefs were extremely superstitious and one of their superstitions was that the flame in the Temple of Vesta should always stay burning. The Temple of Vesta was perhaps the most sacred spot in the entire Roman Forum. To keep the flames burning, they would choose six Vestal virgins - girls of age 10 from the noble Roman families - who would then serve this role for 30 years before being allowed to marry.
The basilica of Constantine was a gigantic structure that was dedicated to Emperor Constantine. Its architecture lay the foundation of the typical church design - an altar opposite the entrance, flanked by side niches with a lot of space in the middle. The same design was copied in Saint Peter's basilica and to this day forms the basis of most church designs.
In many ways, Rome continued the Greek traditions of emphasis on law and logic that formed the basis of the modern day Western democracies.
After this extensive tour of the Roman Forum area, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant near by and the food was decent. We then decided to go to the Pantheon but took the wrong bus and ended up taking two hours to get to it but finally got there.
On our way, we stopped at the Trevi Fountain where tourists throw a coin in it which is believed to bring good luck. It has marvelous sculptures of Neptune and the two tritons that depict the different moods of the sea and is quite grand. The place was packed and must've had over a thousand people there!
Then we reached the Pantheon and before going inside, we bought Italy's famous gelato (ice cream). I got mango and pistachio. Samia chose cappuccino and lemon. Excellent ice cream that was just perfect on a hot day after we had been riding the bus and walking for over two hours.
The Colosseum is very grand but it becomes hard to imagine its grandeur since most of it is now a ruin. The Pantheon, on the other hand, is extremely well preserved and in pretty much the same condition (barring routine maintenance renovation) as it was almost two millennia ago in 120 AD. It is a marvel of engineering and the precise mathematical ratios used in its construction still have experts at a loss of explaining how they achieved that. Again, inspired by Greek architecture, it looks like a Greek temple from the front with towering columns and a triangular pediment on top. But that's just the beginning of the wonder. The true glory of this ancient building is in its dome and you realize it only after you go inside. The dome is a hemisphere that is on top of a cubic structure. The diameter of the hemisphere and the length of one side of the cube are exactly the same at 140 meters. Appreciation of mathematics tells us how hard it would be to build such a structure today, let alone in a time when there was no electricity, no cranes or other construction equipment. And with such enormous dimensions - truly mind boggling. The crowning jewel however is the oculus or the 30 meters wide hole at the top of the dome, the only source of light for the building. So why was such an impressive building built? The Pantheon was built as a temple for all (pan) of the gods (thoes). The only reason it is so well preserved (unlike the Colosseum and other structures in the Roman Forum) is that early on in Christianity, it was converted to a church and still serves that function today. Now there are no statues of pagan gods however; what you see are statues paying tribute to famous Italians like Raphael and tombs of some Italian kings that ruled Italy after it became united as one country in 1861 (instead of the various city-states like Rome, Venice and Florence that existed till then). Our favorite ancient site after Machu Picchu of Peru.
After that, we went to a famous hangout place - the Piazza Navona. We had coffee and tiramisu while people watching in this ancient square that used to be a site of chariot racing. Then we walked around for a little while before taking a bus to the main Termini station. From there, we walked to a restaurant that Sarim recommended for Alfredo pasta with white sauce. Easily the best food we've had in Rome so far! We're sure that we will gain weight after Rome despite walking 10 km on average each day. Today, we actually walked 13.6 km.
It was a busy day but the grandeur of the impressive ancient sites make us like Rome a little more. Still, this will probably be our only trip here - the history may be impressive but the present is not that great.
Tomorrow, we'll see the Christian history of Rome at the Vatican. Till then, good night and take care.
The tram took us directly to our first stop, the Colosseum. We had bought our tickets online so we skipped the ticket purchasing line that would've meant waiting in line for at least an hour. Once inside, we saved some more time since we didn't have to stand in the audio guide line as we were using our downloaded audio guide by the world famous Rick Steves. The Colosseum was essentially a gigantic stadium where gladiators fought in front of crowds of up to 50,000 people. The Roman Empire spanned a 1000 years in history starting in 500 BC and ending around 500 AD. During the first 500 years, the empire was rising and expanding, in the next 200 years, it was at its peak and then the last 300 years were in decline. The Colosseum was built during the peak years and took 10 years to build after construction was started around 72 AD by the Flavian family. Booty and loot from suppressing the uprising of Jews in Palestine in 70 AD was used for the construction. Romans were excellent engineers but weren't too artistic so the aesthetic design of the Colosseum is borrowed from the more sophisticated Greeks. Combining Greek classical design with Roman engineering and slave labour and riches of the Jews, this grand amphitheater was created as the biggest of the 250 amphitheaters in the Roman Empire. Gladiator games had three acts: first, animals from all over the kingdom would be paraded after letting them through in the main arena through the 80 doors and they would fight with and kill each other. Act two was the execution of prisoners of war and criminals, often in creative ways like dressing them up as heroes and killing them as the heroes had died or throwing them to lions without clothes. The final and third act was the main draw of the games: the gladiator fights. Gladiators were professional "athletes" and would use their weapon of choice to fight. If a gladiator fell down and was at the mercy of the standing rival, the Roman Emperor would be asked if he wanted the fallen killed or not and the Emperor would give his decision with a thumbs up or thumbs down. Sometimes an Emperor would leave the decision to the spectators who would vote using thumbs up or down. As Rome was a hierarchical society, seating in this ancient stadium was also based on your class in the society - the Emperor had his own throne, the senators and dignitaries had the front row seats, the other nobles and army officials had middle tier seats and the back rows were open to general public. When the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as the official state religion, the games became politically incorrect and were finally banned in 435 AD and the Colosseum's use diminished. For the next thousand years, it was used sporadically as makeshift apartments/shops, a church, cemetery and a place of refuge during civil unrest. A big earthquake in 1349 AD caused the south side to be damaged but the north side has all three floors intact. Thankfully, in the 16th Century, a series of Christian popes took pity towards the crumbling pagan structure and asked the site to be preserved in memory of the Christians who had been executed in the arena while the Roman Empire was officially still Pagan and worshipped its some 30,000 gods.
Next, we saw the Arch of Constantine that is a huge gate right next to the Colosseum. It was dedicated to Emperor Constantine who is very popular in history since his decision to adopt Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire around 312 AD sowed the seeds for Christianity to spread far and wide throughout the world. The decision married church and state so strongly that toward the decline of the Roman Empire, the Senators became the bishops, orators became priests, basilicas became churches and the Roman Emperor became the Pope.
Then we entered the Roman Forum. These are ruins of the large Capitol area of Ancient Rome that had the Senate building, Temple of Julius Caesar, an impressive temple with 50 meter long columns dedicated to another notable Emperor Antonius Pius and his wife Faustina, the residence of the Vestal Virgins (more about them below), the Temple of Vesta, the Temple of Saturn and the basilica of Constantine (more on that below).
During the first half of the Roman Empire, Rome was a "Republic" - ruled by the aristocracy via an elected Senate and in the second half, Rome was ruled by a dictator. Julius Caesar was the first Roman dictator and perhaps the most famous of all ancient Roman Emperors. As mentioned earlier, the Romans were pagans and had over 30,000 gods that they worshipped. It wasn't uncommon for a successful Emperor (and their wife) to be added to this ever-increasing list of gods after they died. Antonius Pius, his wife Faustina and Julius Caesar are such examples, therefore they have temples dedicated to them in the Roman Forum.
Their pagan beliefs were extremely superstitious and one of their superstitions was that the flame in the Temple of Vesta should always stay burning. The Temple of Vesta was perhaps the most sacred spot in the entire Roman Forum. To keep the flames burning, they would choose six Vestal virgins - girls of age 10 from the noble Roman families - who would then serve this role for 30 years before being allowed to marry.
The basilica of Constantine was a gigantic structure that was dedicated to Emperor Constantine. Its architecture lay the foundation of the typical church design - an altar opposite the entrance, flanked by side niches with a lot of space in the middle. The same design was copied in Saint Peter's basilica and to this day forms the basis of most church designs.
In many ways, Rome continued the Greek traditions of emphasis on law and logic that formed the basis of the modern day Western democracies.
After this extensive tour of the Roman Forum area, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant near by and the food was decent. We then decided to go to the Pantheon but took the wrong bus and ended up taking two hours to get to it but finally got there.
On our way, we stopped at the Trevi Fountain where tourists throw a coin in it which is believed to bring good luck. It has marvelous sculptures of Neptune and the two tritons that depict the different moods of the sea and is quite grand. The place was packed and must've had over a thousand people there!
Then we reached the Pantheon and before going inside, we bought Italy's famous gelato (ice cream). I got mango and pistachio. Samia chose cappuccino and lemon. Excellent ice cream that was just perfect on a hot day after we had been riding the bus and walking for over two hours.
The Colosseum is very grand but it becomes hard to imagine its grandeur since most of it is now a ruin. The Pantheon, on the other hand, is extremely well preserved and in pretty much the same condition (barring routine maintenance renovation) as it was almost two millennia ago in 120 AD. It is a marvel of engineering and the precise mathematical ratios used in its construction still have experts at a loss of explaining how they achieved that. Again, inspired by Greek architecture, it looks like a Greek temple from the front with towering columns and a triangular pediment on top. But that's just the beginning of the wonder. The true glory of this ancient building is in its dome and you realize it only after you go inside. The dome is a hemisphere that is on top of a cubic structure. The diameter of the hemisphere and the length of one side of the cube are exactly the same at 140 meters. Appreciation of mathematics tells us how hard it would be to build such a structure today, let alone in a time when there was no electricity, no cranes or other construction equipment. And with such enormous dimensions - truly mind boggling. The crowning jewel however is the oculus or the 30 meters wide hole at the top of the dome, the only source of light for the building. So why was such an impressive building built? The Pantheon was built as a temple for all (pan) of the gods (thoes). The only reason it is so well preserved (unlike the Colosseum and other structures in the Roman Forum) is that early on in Christianity, it was converted to a church and still serves that function today. Now there are no statues of pagan gods however; what you see are statues paying tribute to famous Italians like Raphael and tombs of some Italian kings that ruled Italy after it became united as one country in 1861 (instead of the various city-states like Rome, Venice and Florence that existed till then). Our favorite ancient site after Machu Picchu of Peru.
After that, we went to a famous hangout place - the Piazza Navona. We had coffee and tiramisu while people watching in this ancient square that used to be a site of chariot racing. Then we walked around for a little while before taking a bus to the main Termini station. From there, we walked to a restaurant that Sarim recommended for Alfredo pasta with white sauce. Easily the best food we've had in Rome so far! We're sure that we will gain weight after Rome despite walking 10 km on average each day. Today, we actually walked 13.6 km.
It was a busy day but the grandeur of the impressive ancient sites make us like Rome a little more. Still, this will probably be our only trip here - the history may be impressive but the present is not that great.
Tomorrow, we'll see the Christian history of Rome at the Vatican. Till then, good night and take care.
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