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March 2004

Rome

David Aaronson
2005-10-01 17:13:39

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This temple is also a fairly interesting story (8). It was originally built and dedicated to the Empress Faustina. Later the Emperor Antoninus Pius was added on and it became the Temple of Antonino and Faustina. In the 8th century, the Christians came along and turned it into the church of San Lorenzo, building the church inside the original walls of the Roman temple.

The domed building here is the Curia, the traditional meeting place of the Roman senate (9). Naturally this spent a time as a church as well during the middle ages. It has since been restored and can be peered into from the doorways.

Curiously enough, we visited the forum on the Ides of March, the date on which Julius Caesar was murdered. This is more or less the location of that scene and the burning of Caesar's body which followed (10).

On the far end of the forum from the Colosseum is the Piazza del Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo (11). The building centered here is the Palazzo dei Senatori.

The most spectacular sight in Rome in our opinion is the Pantheon (12). Originally built in 27 BC as a tribute to assorted Roman gods and goddesses, the inside dome is a perfect half-sphere and unfortunately does not translate well on film so you'll have to go see it for yourself. Italian kings and the renaissance artist Raphael are buried inside.

Piazza Navona is an enormous oval-shaped opening in an otherwise densely packed area of Rome. There are lots of restaurants in the square and it's a great place for people watching. We had a pleasant meal on the square although there was a fine line between a relatively frigid wind blowing through the square and the overbearing heat lamps employed by the restaurant. Most of us were extra tan on one side by the end of dinner.

The Spanish Steps were somewhat disappointing. They are in essence just a meeting place but we were in the area a couple times while in Rome and it was never very interesting. We did have some gelato nearby though. Yes, twice in the same day. David had melon and blackberry . Melanie had almond and coffee .

Despite the hype, Trevi fountain is pretty cool. There's plenty of Baroque to go around as the fountain is really quite large, especially considering the tiny piazza it is located in. If you stand facing the fountain it's really a very pleasant location, and you can pretend you don't know what's going on behind you�