Roma part 1

I walk the streets of Rome like a goggled eyed kid. This world is new to me. The marble steps worn smooth by ancient Roman feet, the names I know from textbooks carved everywhere: Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Constantine, Augustus... And then there's the renaissance Rome. And contemporary Rome.
To prevent my brain exploding, I plan to limit myself to focussing on the sights of Ancient Rome during my first day, and looking at Rennaisance stuff on the second.

Day1
The Pantheon is the most intact building from Ancient Rome. (If you have a good connection, try this great 'virtual tour')
It is also one of the more mysterious buildings. Even just three generations after it was built, the writer Cassius Dio could not state its original purpose.








Pretty soon it became a church, however and this helped it survive intact: it was left alone by the (christian) Goths and other invaders at the end of the Empire. It's been a church ever since and Raphael is buried there. I loved it's spacious dome, massive columns, (pictured) but most of all the awe it inspires.

The Collosseo is spectacular but a bit sad... would we want people to revere our big tops, our cage-fighting arenas? I'm also reminded of the hands that built these monuments. The colloseum was built by Jewish slaves (or as the plaque inside euphemistically reads 'with booty from the Jewish uprising')

But listing the monuments I saw does't capture the experience I had walking these baking hot streets. Every Piazza (square) has an Obelisk, a statue, a column an arch or even a pyramid shaped tomb, all from Imperial days. So many, that guidebooks devoted to Rome must miss some out or risk being the size of an encyclopedia. Ancient debris - shattered statues and collapsed columns, litter the open spaces such as public gardens. Thomas from Bordeaux tells me that one can see a pile of broken amphoras in the (surprisingly picturesque) Tiber. I stumble upon Republic-era ruins that would be the pride of any other city purely by accident. Stray cats sleep there and are fed by a charity. Another attraction is Notte Bianca, a recent tradition. The idea is, basically, an all night party in the streets. Trains will run packed throughout all the night carrying revellers, including many familys, into the centre of Rome to wander from Piazza to Piazza, to be entertained by musicians, parades and acrobats. Highlights for me were dancing behind a batucada troupe along a street that runs through the ruins of the Roman Forum and learning "Bella Ciao" an anti-facist anthem-plus-love-song.