Rome, the Ancient City

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  Rome, Lazio, Italy
Sunday, October 3, 2010

The ancient city cannot be ignored. The coliseum is impressive today: it must have been immeasurably more so to the Romans of its day.  The remains of the ancient city along the Sacred Way and on the Palatine Hill are extensive, but would be so much more interesting with some signs to explain what the various buildings were and how they were used, as far as is known at least.

The collection in the Capitoline Museum, designed by Michelangelo, started more than five hundred years ago, so it has had the pick of the best sculpture from the ancient times as it has been discovered: and what a superb collection it has.  The downside to it, again, is the lack of information displayed alongside the objects.

The Pantheon was designed to serve all the gods of pre-christian Rome, and since the 7th Century AD it has been a Christian church.  Built in 126 AD, it has been in continuous use ever since, and is in good condition.  It still has the largest dome in the world of unreinforced concrete. 

Piazza Navonne, besides being a rather splendid piazza based on the open space of the first century AD Stadium of Domitian, is home to the wonderfully exuberant 1651 Fountain of the Four Rivers by Bernini, the Neptune Fountain, and the Church of Saint Agnese in Agone, which is built on the site of the martyrdom in 304 AD of the 12 year old Saint Agnes in the original stadium.

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The Four Rivers Fountain	The Four Rivers Fountain	The Four Rivers Fountain	The Four Rivers Fountain
The Four Rivers Fountain	The Four Rivers Fountain	Piazza Navona	Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona	The Neptune Fountain	The Dolphin Fountain	The Dolphin Fountain
Colosseum	Colosseum	Colosseum	Colosseum
Colosseum	Colosseum	Colosseum	Colosseum
Colosseum	Constantine Arch	Constantine Arch	Basilica of Maxentius
Palatine Hill Stadium	Basilica of Fulvia-Aemilia	The Via Sacra	The Piazza del Campidoglio
The Piazza del Campidoglio (Marcus Aurelius copy)	The Piazza del Campidoglio	The Piazza del Campidoglio	The Capitoline Museum
The Piazza del Campidoglio	The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum
The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum
The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum
The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum
The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum
The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum	The Capitoline Museum (Marcus Aurelius original)
The Capitoline Museum

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