Rome, the Eternal City

What can you say about Rome that hasn't already been said??? It's hard to even describe what it's like to walk into such famous structures like the Pantheon and the Colosseum which have been standing for millenia and to think you are standing where the ancient Romans did. it was interesting to learn that the Pantheon's current form dates to about 120 AD when the emperor Hadrian built it. Hadrian's temple was dedicated to the classical gods - hence the term "Pantheon" combining the Greek words "pan" for all and "theos" for god. It is also remains to this day the largest unreinforced concrete dome ever built. This is due to it's precisely callibrated symmetry - it's diameter is exactly equal to it's interior height of 43.3 meters. As you walk in, your eyes are immediately drawn up to the top of the dome, where the 8.7 meter wide opening at the top called the "oculus" lets in the sunlight. For the ancient Romans, the oculus served as a symbolic connection between the temple and gods. Interestingly, rainwater enters through the oculus but drains away through 22 almost invisible openings in the marble floor. Pretty cool, huh???

We were so happy that we purchased a Roma Pass, which is a card you buy for 25 euros and with it you can ride all the public transportation in the city as well as get free admission into two ancient sights or museums of your choice. We decided to use it for the Colosseum (the Pantheon is free to get in) which allowed us to go right in rather than stand in line, which looked REALLY long. The Colosseum was built by the emperor Vespasian between 69-79 AD. It was originally known as the Flavian Amphitheatre. To mark the inauguration, Vespasian's son and successor Titus held games in it that lasted 100 days and nights in which some 5000 animals were slaughtered. Amazingly, it wasn't even the largest of the ancient colosseums and only held about 50,000 people - the largest one was Circus Massimo which held 200,000 people.

In addition, we also visited the Forum, which was the ancient market place in front of the Colosseum. What is really wild is how these ancient ruins exist in the middle of this huge (3.2 million people) modern city, with all the honking traffic and scooters zipping around everywhere. Too much!!

Probably the best part of all is the great weather we have lucked out with while we've been in Rome. It has been sunny and warm, with highs in the upper 60's to around 70. Ahhh........we actually walked around today without any coats! Tomorrow we hope to get out of the buzz of the city and visit Villa Borghese, a beautiful park that sits above the city. There is also a great museum there - thanks for the suggestion, Chele! - that we plan to visit as well. Early Wednesday morning, we'll board the train for Naples, which is about a 2 hour ride south of here. If all works out as planned, we hope to visit the ruins of Pompei the same day. We'll keep you posted on how that goes.......Arrivederci for now!