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Published: July 18th 2017
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Geo: 41.8947, 12.4839
Ciao,
The remains of ancient Rome are not confined to a single area of the modern city. Monuments and buildings from the era of the Roman Empire and earlier are scattered far and wide, yet the heart of the city boasts the largest concentration of ancient monuments. Knowing this we hopped on a bus to explore some of this area.
We began at Piazza Venezia , a huge square from which some of the city's major streets lead off to the four points of the compass. The Palazzo Venezia is located here and is known for the balcony from which Mussolini badgered crowds in the square below.
We moved on to view the Foro Romano (Roman Forum) next. It was the heart of the Roman Empire for over 1,000 years. The monuments, over their 3,000 year history, had been built, rebuilt, moved, destroyed, adapted, plundered, or left to fall into ruin. It's amazing to see what has been preserved and is visible for all to see. Who made that decision and who was responsible for staying with it? While in this area you are actually walking in the footsteps of Julius Caesar, Nero, Caligula, Claudius, Hadrian and many others. Major excavations
to explore previously untouched areas continue today.
The city's most majestic ancient monument is the Colosseo(Colosseum). The building was begun by Emperor Vespasian is AD70. By the time of his death in AD 79 the Colosseo was completed to the third tier. Additions were made by his son, Titus, and it was inaugurated in AD80 with celebrations that saw the slaughter of 5,000 animals and 100 days of celebrations. The structure's design has provided a model for stadia to this day, with tiered seating and many exits. It held between 50,000 and 73,000 people. The primary function was to stage gladiatorial and other games. We were able to see the maze of tunnels and shafts under the stage which were used to bring the animals and gladiators to the stage. Again it's amazing to actually see a part of history!
Our next stop was Capitolino which was the center of the city's military, religious and political life. Today this area is occupied by Piazza del Campidoglio, a square laid out by Michelangelo and bounded by Rome's Town Hall, the Palazzo Senatorio and the Musei Capitolini. In the center of the piazza stands a copy of the famous equestrian statue of Emperor
Marcus Aurelius.
Now being ready for a break and lunch we caught a bus back to our home section of the city. When rest time was up we headed out to see more of the city. We wandered through more residential areas just to see where some of the people live. Again, it's all apartments but in neighborhoods with trees which we only saw a few of in the city center.
Pretty soon the sun was beginning to set so we found a dinner spot and had some more good food. We shared pizza and ravioli, both were quite good. After dinner we did some more street investigating and eventually returned home for the night.
More Experiences to come Tomorrow.
Buona sera
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