Rome, Italy, 2013 - architecture

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Just over a year ago today I travelled to Italy, to visit the capital city of a beautiful country with my university History Society. It was pretty exciting, especially considering it was the first time I went abroad on my own, leaving behind 2 slightly apprehensive parents.

It was the trip of a lifetime and the architecture within Rome was definitely the stand-out impression for me. Our really enthusiastic Canadian tour guide, Tad not Ted, used a great method of explaining the surrounding areas to us, like telling us that the people who lived at the top of Rome were the equivalent of the Real Housewives of Orange County, the richest of the rich! It was a really good way to explain stuff, because lets face it, despite studying and being interested in history, stories need to be conveyed positively or we'd just fall asleep aided by the +20 degrees temperatures!


I'll always remember his description of the Pantheon, a place of religion with a beautiful domed building with a small circular gap in the roof. Different religions would go and worship their gods at certain points in the day, dependent on when the sun shone down and onto their area of worship. The architecture was just incredible, and though said tongue in cheek, Ted's quote of:

Slavery gets sh*t done

spoke a lot of truth! On a serious note, he explained how modern architects have tried to understand how the Roman's built the Pantheon in the time that they did, taking into account how long it takes for cement to dry out etc and there was literally NO EXPLANATION. Similarly, when we went to Pompeii, we saw how modern architects have failed to build the cobbled streets as effectively as the Romans did.

Seeing the Colosseum for me was really one of the highlights. It was such a mindblow to be told that this absolutely enormous structure standing in front of me was only 1/3 of the remnants of the original sized building! It was incredible to think of all of the history that had gone on just a few hundred metres from where I was standing. For the same reason, visiting the amphitheater was really quite powerful, just to think that I was standing where gladiators had once stood, in an environment set up for the entertainment of the Roman emperors and richer inhabitants!

So in reflection, the architectural side of Rome was incredible, a really interesting outlook into a group of people who had far less resources than we have today, without the reliance on modern day technology.





WHEN IN ROME, DO AS THE ROMANS DO.

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Photos

The Pantheon Roof
The Pantheon Roof, the sun would shine down onto the respective gods where people would worship at certain points in the day.

The ampitheatre
The ampetheatre, standing on the same grounds where gladiators used to stand

Colosseum
Modernity vs. Old architecture: the Colosseum

Pompeii
The cobbled streets of Pompeii

Pompeii
The remnants of a victim of the Pompeii disaster. Powerful stuff