To walk through the Roman Forum and touch the brickwork and marbled masonry, to stand next to the cremation place of Julius Caesar was quite the experience. Within the Forum are triumphal arches, basilicas, the Rostra where speeches were declaimed and the Curia wherein the Senate met and plotted. Along the Via Sacra, ancient Rome's most important street I too walked as had Pompey, Cicero and others before me, not that I'm comparing myself, for a start I'm not that big a bastard. Being so close to history can make a person thoughtful and it was impossible to mistake how grand the place originally had been. Tom Holland in his book Rubicon quotes Plutarch who records that to achieve Caesar's conquest of Gaul 1 million people were killed, 1 million were enslaved and 800 cities were taken by storm. Rome's dominance lasted for hundreds of years and the conquest of Gaul was only one campaign, little wonder therefore it produced an architecture of equal magnificence to its power.
Would I go back, you bet your sweet boo boo I bloody well would. For a start we barely scratched the surface, barely tasted the food, barely drank the wine (Sean's teetotal anyway) barely heard enough sublime opera, barely walked those wonderful streets, barely sat in those wonderful gardens, barely drank enough espresso and I certainly wasn't rude enough about the Catholic Church.
The oranges, by the way, are from The Palatine Hill where the posh, powerful and super rich of Rome used to live. 2000 years ago my ancestors, who were mainly blue due to an excess of woad will probably have encountered the Romans. Glad I missed that one...
10 comments:
Have loved looking at your flickr photos.
I could just die in Rome.
Will never forget the first time I was there....that drive in...and the first glimpse of Palatine Hill. When you're from a country that plaques and commemorates every building over 100 years old...it's really something.
Santa Susanna is completely off the beaten path and nothing to speak of when compared to some of the more wonderful sites of the city (St Paul's outside the Walls is my all time favourite)....but it's the American Church in Rome so, ya know, being American and all. I had to hunt it out...
But I ramble....glad you had a good time!fat
Ok. Clearly my subconscious is not pleased with the strawberry frap I just had from starbucks...dunno where 'fat' came from! lol
Buffy,
I simply loved the place. Absolutely, flippin' well loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Sigh.
Oooooh. Very jealous. (I went once or twice but it was in August when every sensible Roman gets the hell out of a very very hot city to go to the seaside, spring must be a much better time to go and look around.) I loved your photos too. Don't know about you but I was blown away by the Colosseum, it was so beautiful yet the site of so many terrible things.
Don't you worry, I bet you'll get to go back.
Annie,
I too thought the Colosseum colossal. Indeed I found the whole experience amazing. So much to see in Rome and so much to think about. I found it a deeply rich city, in culture and history. For instance the Temple of Antonius and Faustina in the Forum which became in the 7th Century the Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda, it's all there to see, in the architecture, in the lay of the land. From Roman to Christian, a Roman Temple which became the framework for a church. What astonishing historical happenings must have occurred to bring about such change. And the whole of Rome is full of such sights. To be honest I was blown away by the place. And yes I will visit again, hey I threw a coin into the Trevi Fountain therefore my return is inevitable. You're right about Spring though, it's definitely the right season, beautifully warm but not scorching...
ps names mentioned above are courtesy of The Rough Guide to Rome.
It always amazes me that places that old still exist. Canada is such a young country, 139 years old. The idea that places with that kind of history exist are just beyond me.
K,
Canada might be a young country but the land upon which it sits has an aboriginal past that goes way back beyond the Romans, as I understand it. Didn't people get across to North America from Russia thousands of years ago? I think hom saps have been in your neck of the woods almost as long as they've been in Europe. Shows what kinda wandering guys we are. Re Rome and history, funnily I didn't feel unconnected to the place even though I'm a modern Brit rather than an old Roman. Though I'm an internationalist and not a nationalist I'm constantly in awe at what us hom saps have achieved. Being an internationalist, when I look at Rome and all the other great wonders of the world I can't help but think of what even more mightier achievements would be possible if we weren't saddled with capitalism and lived in a more democratic world based upon a democratised economy. That said, I'm not so blind I can't stunned by what I see around me now.
traces of tobacco has been found in digs at pyramids: clearly there have been many links between 'old' and 'new' worlds. who knew folks wandered so much?
haven't been to Rome, or barely to Italy. One of these days.
so much to see.......... (didn't we already agree on that?)
That is true but they left almost no evidence of their existence, since they were "one with the land"
To think, we don't respect our history here. I try not to envy those 'old' countries, I try to learn from them. I wish our leaders would.
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