Before I start talking about ancient Rome, I will first talk about KITTIES! (Because this is is the internet, and we all now how the internet feels about cats.) But anyway these ruins are essentially Rome's litter box. I think just from where I was standing, I was able to count about 15 cats down there, just in my scope of the view. Signs were posted saying not to feed them. (You can see one in the bottom left corner. Sorry I took the photo of the ruins, not the cats.)
Next is this incredible example of ancient Roman architecture. JUST KIDDING! It was finished in the early 20th century. Apparently its scale has been criticized greatly.
We continued walking down the boulevard that led straight to the Colosseum. Which in relative terms, is a very recent construction. It just shows how many layers of the city there are. Ancient>medieval>Renaissance>Baroque>Modern.
Ancient ruins, Baroque church, Renaissance buildings behind, then the recent monument in the background.
This would have been the main street through the Roman forum, where military parades would have taken place.
A new baroque church taking advantage of the ancient Roman temple front.
Palatine hill.
Timo also getting his photo of the hill.
AJ and Hao looking on.
It's funny. In the Roman forum, buildings like this, which are older than the United States, are considered 'New".
My response to this Basilica - "Holy barrel vault, batman." I mean when you look at it, know the age and scale of these things, it is mind blowing.
Arch of Titus.
Back in the day was this one jagoff emperor named Nero. He may or may not have burned down a good portion of the city to make way for his own palace. Either way, he took advantage and built it. It was built along the hill. In the valley below was an artificial lake where he would stage naval war games (or something like that.) Anyway, once his rule was over, they completely buried his palace with dirt. (thus the excavation.)
And the private artificial lake was replaced with a structure built for the entertainment of the people, the Flavian Amphitheatre, or Colosseum.
This is where the emperor's throne used to be. Does that mean I get to be emperor?
Quite a nice view today?
Birds!
Quite a nice view today? Thank the Lord for beautiful weather.
The hut of Romulus. The most ancient part of the city. 700s BC.
Colosseum time for myself. Being a stadium architecture junkie, I was pretty excited.
Arch of Constantine. The part not covered by scaffolding
The effect here is the same as modern stadiums. Walking through the concourse, just getting a glimpse of the interior playing field.
Then you emerge into the huge space.
Here we stopped to listen to info from our professor. The Roman people were given substantial entertainment here. Much expense was paid to make the events happen. Events would occur over the course of the day. They would start with something small, like exotic animal fights, transition to hunts, where the animals would be hunted down and killed. During the lunch break, they would execute criminals, many of them were Christ followers, which was illegal. Then there would be gladiator fights, the loser would be down on the ground with a sword to his neck. He would beg the crowd and emperor for mercy. If he had fought gallantly, there was about a 20% chance they would spare him, and he could live to fight another day. I don't have my sketchbook/notebook with me, because the professors are reviewing our Siena sketches. I can't throw out specific figures, but depending if you have an animal conservation conscious, or a human rights conscious, the slaughter that occurred here was massively horrible. I was incredibly excited to visit this stadium, but its dark history but a negative spin on the entire place, just having a memory of what happened here, and what it was used for. Baseball, football, or hockey are so much more civic than what the Romans desired.
The structure of the stadium was entirely based on arches.
I started taking panoramas in stadiums, so it has always been a desire of mine to get a panorama in the Colosseum.
Arch of Constantine as viewed from the Colosseum.
More panorama! In my sketchbook, I did a size comparison between this place, Heinz Field, Consol Center, and Dix Stadium. The 'playing surface' is larger than hockey, but much smaller than and American football field. So I guess I would never see Big Ben throw a touchdown here.
We were able to walk all around the perimeter on this level.
Cross set in this place in memory of those who died here.
Potentially my favorite photo from this trip. My point n' shoot does fairly decent close up shots.
As we were walking back, this caught my eye. This is a ghost bike. For those not familiar with the concept, when someone dies while riding their bike, they take the bike, paint it white, and chain it up on the side of the road as a reminder.
A famous classical order, a Birdinthian column.
There are the barrel vaults again.
I understand the criticism on scale, the thing is huge, and overtakes the historic buildings, but it is pretty impressive.
Piazza del Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo on the Capitoline Hill.
It offered a cool view to the Roman forum.
Statue looking out from the top of the Piazza del Campidoglio.
Later in the evening we found ourselves re-visiting the Pantheon.
Hello gynormous column on a 2000 year old structure! I love you!
We then wondered in pursuit of food. And ended up along the river.
And right in the middle of the city, were some more ancient ruins.
Later that night, I decided to do some wondering on my own. Of course, I went back to the Pantheon. Because it is awesome.
My adventure then took me to the Trevi Fountain, which I can best describe as a place of chaos and tranquility. The crowd there, even at 10 at night, was as big as the fountain itself. I took a seat on the side, directly below where I took this photo, and just relaxed for probably over an hour, enjoying the fountain, and watching the people, many throwing coins into the fountain behind them. I also decided to pull out my bible and do some reading, and my reading plan took me past Psalm 136, which is funny because it was Valentines Day, and repeated 26 times through the psalm was the phrase "
for his steadfast love endures forever." Very funny coincidences!
The fountain was pretty!
And of course I went back to the Pantheon again.
Night shots come out much better with a long shutter speed. But to get them to be clear, you need to keep the camera steady. Now to get the photo I wanted, I had to brace my camera against my backpack. And the easiest way to get what I wanted was to put myself on the ground. So my the fountain in the middle of the piazza, I hear a few girls talking in english condescendingly. "Haha look at that guy over there... He's crawling on the wet ground... He must really want to a good photo." I did not react at all. I let them make fun of me, letting them stay in their comfort zone of thinking I didn't speak english. But when I was done, I decided to go over to them ad tell them "Hey, the photo came out pretty good," leaving them feeling nice and awkward.
