“Veni, vidi, vici. (I came, I saw, I conquered.)”
― Julius Caesar
I can't go to Italy and not go to Rome, I said.
But you've cut our trip short by 3 weeks, he said
I'll fit it in somehow, I said.
And so I did.
But you've cut our trip short by 3 weeks, he said
I'll fit it in somehow, I said.
And so I did.
Rome In Two Days
I'm not a believer. Religion or spirituality. Whatever one may call it - it has no hold on me. "No shit!" all my friends and family say. What holds me entranced is beauty and art - and the Vatican by hook and crook holds an amazing collection of beauty. It is for that reason I'm drawn to it. I wanted to see the Michelangelo's and Raphael's handiwork. I wanted to gaze at the mosaics in the Sala Rotunda. I wanted to climb the dome in St Peter's Basilica and look out over the city of Rome.
A collection of some of the most beautiful art in the world - I'm glad I fit it into my schedule. It was worth the wait.
A collection of some of the most beautiful art in the world - I'm glad I fit it into my schedule. It was worth the wait.
The Vatican Museum
Ceilings in the Vatican Museum
THE SISTINE CHAPEL CEILING STORY & PICTURE CLICK HERE
Floors in the Vatican Museum
Tapestries in the Vatican Museum
Statues and Sculptures at the Vatican Museum
Roman Colosseum
The Roman Forum (Plaza)
The Romans were industrious builders. All over Europe we walk along old Roman stone paths and pass by fallen columns and broken walls. Sometimes, in Rome, you will just pass a random vacant lot with a few broken columns lying there, untouched and unnoticed. It's difficult to imagine these ancient bones as part of a vibrant active city.
The Roman Forum was designed by the architect Vitruvius in the marshy ground where early inhabitants had assembled for hundreds, possibly thousands of years. He placed it above the long rounded rectangular and still identifiable Circus Maximus (200 BC) stadium, where public games, entertainment and the real chariot races were held. The forum evolved over the centuries to become the heart of Roman government. Later in 70 AD the colosseum was built on a hill above the forum and on the opposite hill were the elegant homes and apartments of the wealthy. I think Plautus gave a great description of the area circa 470 AD: "For perjurers, try the Comitium. Liars and braggarts hang around the Shrine of Cloacina: rich, married ne'er do-wells by the Basilica. Packs of prostitutes there too - but rather clapped-out ones. In the Fish-Market, members of the dining clubs. In the lower Forum respectable, well-to-do citizens out for a stroll; in the Middle Forum, flashier types along the canal. By the Lacus Curtius you will find bold fellows with a tongue in their head and a bad intent in their mind - great slanderers of others and very vulnerable to it themselves. By the old shops, the money-lenders - they will make or take a loan. Behind the Temple of Castor there are men to whom you wouldn't entrust yourself. In the Vicus Tuscus are men who sell themselves. In the Velabrum you will find a baker or a butcher or a fortune-teller, or men who will do a turn for you or get you to do a turn for them." |
As you walk the main street of ancient Rome, near the bottom on the left is a small covered alcove. Inside the alcove is a small altar that looks like a pile of dirt. The plaque on the wall outside reads:
Caesars body was laid in the Roman Forum where the ancient seat of the Roman power resided. There the Roman people gathered tables, chairs and any other type of wood that they found. They lit the fire and all the people witnessed the burning of the fire during the night .In this place they built an altar and then a temple to the same Caesar IN WHICH HE IS NOW HONORED AS A god. |