20 - 25 May 2013 - Rome, Italy
The City of Rome is OLD. This is a place where the concept of 'modern' begins in the 15th Century. The very buildings and structures here bespeak of ages passing, of untold human history. As a visitor, I was thoroughly overwhelmed here. With a bit of preparation - a brief review of my early Western and Central Asian histories, and this awesome book - I was totally ready to have my mind blown here.
If the history and culture are of interest, a single visit to Rome cannot cover it all. I was doubly fortunate to have got a local introduction from a new friend and couchsurf host, a brilliant and extraordinarily hospitable guy. So it was that I was in good company to begin a fresh exploration of this still-vibrant center of civilization. Better yet, I was the arriving vanguard of the family group after a brief parting of paths in Firenze (cousins & brother to coast, I directly to Rome), and had an extra 2 days to get a 'lay of the land'. Only here I quickly found that, as I did when typing my blog post on Ireland, the sheer richness of civilization here is too much for me to accurately cover well (go read a book, friends!) - so I will leave my commentary mainly to my snazzy photo's and their generally well-researched captions.
My one disclaimer here is that my approach to exploring Rome focused more on the ancient side of things - like Era of the Kings and Republic (and the Vatican..), rather than the later era of ancient Imperial Rome, or the Dark Ages, or Rennaisaance, or.... you get it. Rome is OLD!
The Walls.
There are two of them. One, older and encompasses the ancient city center; the other, newer and covering much of what is now the main urban parts of Rome including areas across the Tiber.
I was lucky to have met an archeology student roommate of a good friend before my trip. Not only did she recommend the awesome book i mentioned above ('Rome and Environs'), but over a few great conversations she managed to convey a great appreciation for the sheer scale - in physical size AND in an historical context - of the Roman civilization.
Exploing Rome by way of its Walls and infrastructure was as methodical a way to explore this one-time seat of the Western world.
Real. Old. City. This exposed section of the ancient Servian Wall - the innermost, and older, of the two walls encompassing most of the 4 Regions of early Rome dating to the Bronze and Iron Ages - is fascinating. It shows at least 3 different styles of construction and several layers of plaster, in styles typical to this region and used across hundreds of years. Servian Wall, near Temples of Apollo and Bellona, Rome.
A gate section of the ancient Servian Wall to the east of the city - the Porta Esquilina (or the Arch of Gallienus) - now tucked away between two streets in a residential quarter.
Ancient meets contemporary - live street car crossing in front of the Porta Ostiensis, one of the main gates to the south of Rome on the city's younger outer wall...
...the Aurelian Wall. Here a shot down the length of the northern face of the Wall from across the street of the Porta Ostiensis.
Roman Forum - seat of power and center of the ancient Republic of Rome (which is an earlier period to be distinguished from the latter era of Imperial Rome). This fixture in the heart od the city dominates even the modern buildings and squares - which are still the center of the national and municipal governments - and taken together, at least for me, could not be seen in one.
My first (of many) geek-out moments in Rome: remnants of the original aqueduct - the Aqua Claudia, originally 68.7 km long in its entirety! - ordered built by Caligula and completed by Claudius to quench the thirst of the ancient city center, the Roman Forum. My brother, for scale, under the aqueduct near where it terminates at the the Palatine.
Another serious geek-out spot at this fantastically preserved and well-maintained section of the Cloaca Maxima, the ancient Roman sewer system! This exposure, several stories below street level, is close to where the sewer dog-legs under the ancient Roman Forum to capture the influent crap of the Roman elite. As a modern sewer worker, this was a very seriously cool spot: one of the earliest examples of city-level sewer infrastructure - and in some respects still among the best systems in the world!
Here is an active and live excavation currently undergoing at the Roman Forum site - the Niger Lapis. This archaic site in an already ancient location, associated with seat of power and the early death rituals near to the founding of Rome, circa 6th century B.C.
More shots from this amazing cultural relic, the Roman Forum. On the left - one of my fave and only black-and-white pics (with a splash of Red) that includes the Column of Phocas, the Arch of Septimus Severus, and in the background the Church of SS Martina e Luca. Roman Forum, Rome, Italy. On the right - remains of Temple of Vesta (THE real, legit Vestal Virgins of Rome).
Live and on-going excavations abound at the Roman Forum, where many of the monuments are off-limits. Here, a woman digs at the Cesearian-Augustan rosta, from where several of the Cesars made their great proclamations.
Looking up to the front of the Temple of Antoninous and Faustina - and one of my own favorite shots. Behind the ancient Roman facade lies a medieval restoration and Christian repurposing of the temple.
A fun shot I attempted - view north-west along Via del Fori Imperiali from near the Temple of Venus and Roma, of the top-most statuary of the Altare della Patria (Altar of the Fatherland) through remains of the Basilica of Maxentius.
The Colosseum - iconic Roman monument, and a marvel of design and engineering, yet with a brutal and gruesome early history. Still an impreesive and imposing structure, I was surprised by its museum and what I learned about its occupancy after the Empire fell.
Hypothetical rendering of what the Colosseum looked like during a public event... although accounts over time vary, and the space was used for centuries up until the 6th century C.E. Inside Colosseum Museum, Rome, Italy.
From the central interior gallery (where the Cesar used to sit!) one can now see the Colosseum's main arena floor and exposed understructure. Compare to the image above, and envision the scale of production required for this lion-and-landscape gladiator arena.
Much damaged, altered, repaired, and simply weathered over time; that
this epochal structure still stands is a testament to the heights of
achievement attained by a civilization that did not even have electricity.
Upper interior galleries of the Colosseum, now a museum.
The Pantheon - once a monument to the gods since before the era of Christ, later claimed by the Church, and eventually purposed as a tomb ...and now a badass tourist attraction.
One of my favorite photos from this trip, I used the panoramic function in attempt to capture something of the immensity of the Pantheon's interior. To this day, the unsupported dome of the Pantheon remains the worlds largest.
I wasn't helped much here by the perpetually overcast Roman sky but I wanted to show a bit of the imposing entrance of the Pantheon. from the inside looking out.
Ruins and reconstructions - with its own long and tumultuous municipal history there is no shortage of demolished, decrepit, reconstructed, repurposed, and restored (and often charging a fee!) structures all over Rome. Each of these has its own story, some whose spans dozens of centuries.
Shot of the Nymphaeum of Alexander Severus, just outside the eastern gate, Porta Esquilina, though it is not connected to the wall.
It abounds everywhere here and in some areas it has been on-going for centuries - efforts to unearth, restore, and repair many of the most oldest structures. This shot is of restoration work to an arch on the eastern end of the nearly 2500 year old...
...the Circus Maximus. No joke, this enormous chariot racing and entertainment stadium was built with such skill and precision that the at one point (near the later end of its 1000 year span) it could be entirely flooded and famous sea battles were reenacted within it, and seat over 150,000 people.
An impressive structure and one that quickly fostered my appreciation of the Roman scale of their works - the Baths of Diocletian. This vast complex was apparently a major center of Roman (likely elite) life - a fitness center, public bathhouse, general social center...
...and library. While no longer a library in the traditional sense, a large section of the restored area behind the Baths (Michelangelo's Cloister - yes, that Michelangelo's) currently serves as combination art and sculpture gallery, and a great museum of Roman civilization's cultural history and development with some outstanding artifacts.
Craft and artifacts
Pieces of Roman soldier gear arranged as if for battle - the real deal legitimate thing. Small part of the great collection at the Baths of Diocletian.
Funny-looking, but incredibly detailed masks in a Greek
style. Yet another set of cool, very old pieces at the Baths of
Diocletian.
Phenomenal artifacts from around Rome: some of the oldest evidence of writing found in Rome on an extremely well-preserved jar (left) from the Baths of Diocletian, and an ancient carved stone monument finely decorated with a Celtic-esque pattern (right) from the Theater and Crypta of Balbus.
This was just a cool sliver of clay -
what looks like a dark angel holding a chalice or drink. I didn't catch
where this was from, nor from when, but the colors and image are so well
preserved.
Another fun image on a well-preserved
artifact - a plate - from the Baths of Diocletian.
The Statue of Liberty clearly has her
roots outside of and beyond France; something like 2,200 years beyond.
Who knew?
More awesomely preserved art from the
Ancient days, and tastefully displayed in the space in which its was found -
the Baths of Diocletian. In particular here, the colors and skill of the
mosaic struck me as pretty impressive especially after 1,700 years.
More mosaic - it was all over Rome -
yet this one depicting scenes from early Greek mythology (if I' not
mistaken)...
...and both of these on a floor in
the Vatican. Interesting juxtapose, being in the Vatican yet surrounded
by celebrations of an older mythology. Though, in all honesty, there was
an imperial sense through much of the Vatican museum, like that of a conqueror
showing off his plunder.
...in addition to being an iconic
Roman sculpture (apparently, but what does this silly American know?), like
this one, The Fountain of Neptune. It was fun to attempt this shot, as
this also famous fountain was surrounded almost constantly by people.
Fountains abound in Rome, where the
old Roman ideal of 'water for all' is clearly a dominant legacy of the splendor
of the chief city of the Civilization. This particular fountainhead
(legit) rests out front of the Pantheon, at the cleverly named Fontana del
Pantheon.
Bernini is still a big deal in
Rome, but especially so when he was commissioned to design and execute works by
several Popes during his career all over the Eternal City. This
sculpture, with the winner for 'most original title' is called Elephant and
Obelisk. The Obelisk is, according to my research, of real Egyptian
origin and was uncovered nearby around 1667 C.E. when the Elephant was
completed.
And this, friends, is nary a scratch on the surface of what locals here and historians consider some of the real old stuff (some of the Renaissance statues excepted): the era of pre-Christian Rome.
This work by Tim Paez is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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1 comment:
Very well done! You have certainly captured something of the interesting historical remains of the city.
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