Random thoughts on things and places: Rome exploration: the Romans

I was wondering if I should at all write about Rome. It's very trodden, hardly exotic, and there are many people who - unlike me - actually understand what the city has to offer. But at the same time it's just so impressive, rich and layered with history that discovering it is almost like being on a perpetual trip. I still haven't quite gotten used to being here - I mean, I know that this is obvious, but I'm seriously in a place where they have this metro station?!

And this just when you get out of the metro?!

You know it's there, you know what it looks like, but it still impresses you. It impresses me anyway.

The ancient Rome is easy to incite romantic images, more so if you have read Asterix and Obelix. But not all the ancient Roman history was perhaps as idyllic as we could think. The legend of Romulus and Remus might sound glorious and majestic - until we dig into details and find out that, according to Plutarch, Romulus and Remus came out of a union between a giant floating penis (supposedly the spirit of the god Mars) and a female slave (who didn't have a choice to refuse, unlike the daughter of the king who was the first target). Then they were, famously, suckled by a lupa, she-wolf - or were they? Titus Livius seems to insinuate that instead of a lupa - she-wolf, it might have been a certain lady, Larenzia, called lupa - i.e. a prostitute. Not a particularly dignified beginning.

But no matter how the city was founded, the Romans did some impressive things: I still can't get over the fact that in 150 AD Rome had the same number of inhabitants as in 1950s (!!! - just think waste management, or transport - which might have functioned better during the Roman times than it does now). And the ancient times are still recalled: they celebrate Natale di Roma (which - confusingly - is not Roman Christmas, but the anniversary of its foundation), or the anniversary of Caesar's assassination.

White old men haggling over power... not that much has changed in 2000 years really

And the Caesar is dead... again

And while there is potential for exploration for several lifetimes, here is what I have so far figured out about the ancient Rome:

1) The Colosseum is prettier from outside than from inside.

Outside...

... versus inside

Or the underground part?

The view from up there, though, is not bad.

The Arch of Constantine. 4th century and still standing.

The Temple of Venus and Roma, supposedly the largest temple in the ancient Rome. The design was done by the emperor Hadrian - and criticised by an important imperial architect. Unsurprisingly, the architect was banished and executed shortly after.

2) The Roman Rome is deep. What now is this...

2 in 1: Tempio di Antonino e Faustina and Chiesa di San Lorenzo in Miranda, now inside the Forum Romanum

... before was this.

Same place, around 1860-70 (source). Compare how deep the columns were.

Just to see it better:

Why bother removing the temple, if you can just build the church inside (source and source).

Metres below the current Rome, there is the ancient Rome (which must make things like constructing the metro a true nightmare - in fact, they have been trying to connect a new line in the Colosseum area for a few years now).

Forum Romanum

Temple of Vespasianus and Titus on the left, Chiesa Santi Luca e Martina on the right

To be frank, I wouldn't want to have the job of sorting and labelling all the stones.

3) Reuse and recycle. Nowadays it would unthinkable to take pieces of, say, Colosseum to build a new church, bridge or a palace - but in the past this approach was common. Why bring new stones from far, if we have ready material in buildings that aren't of use any more? Older structures conveniently served as a quarry for newer structures: columns from temples were put in churches, parts of the Colosseum were used in the construction of several palaces - an excellent recycling approach. And sometimes the remaining part of the older structure just got integrated in the new one.

Teatro di Marcello: a Roman theatre with 16th century palace on the top

Hadrian's temple (or whatever remains of it), integrated in the palazzo della Borsa, the historical seat of Rome's stock exchange

4) The scale is impressive: with Circus Maximus the expression "mass entertainment" gets into a different dimension. It could apparently host 250,000 people - which would make it the biggest stadium on the planet, ever. For a comparison, according to wikipedia, the biggest stadium now (in North Korea, btw) can host 150,000 people.

Circo Massimo

5) Everything changes. You might think that Rome has looked sort of like now for centuries. Nope! It surprised me how much demolition-restructuring-digging took place in relatively recent years, in the very centre. Take the Via dei Fori Imperiali, the wide road leading around the imperial forums to the Colosseum:

It was built by Mussolini in the late 1920s, and meant erasing a whole neighbourhood of medieval and renaissance houses and churches, and removing part of the Velia hill, in order to create a straight line of road - and apparently to enable Mussolini see the Colosseum from his balcony on Piazza Venezia. Hm.

During and after the demolitions for the construction of the Via dei Fori Imperiali (source 1 and 2)

There and gone (source)

Foro di Augusto before and after the demolition (source 1 and 2)

True, taking a walk among the imperial forums is impressive.

Forum Romanum

Traian's Forum (left) and Forum of Augustus (right)

And admittedly, there might be a point about seeing the Colosseum from distance.

My favourite ancient sites so far, though, are two. First, the Pantheon.

It's almost 2000 years old, and it looks it - in the good way. Huge, imposing and ancient. At the same time, it's still in actual use: it was consecrated as a catholic church in the early 7th century, and they still serve regular mass on Saturdays and Sundays.

The biggest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. The Romans were quite some architects.

My other favourite is the Terme di Caracalla - a gigantic Roman bathhouse. An Olympic-size swimming pool, different hot/warm/cold rooms, gym, library, basilica, all decorated with mosaics... I have to agree with Obelix.