Well, unusually busy travel schedule this Spring. Brenda and I will celebrate our 40th Wedding Anniversary in 2018, so I thought we needed to take a special vacation trip. We organized a Rome-Venice-Switzerland trek that really worked out well, Weather cooperated, we had fun, logistics worked, all was great.
My first visit to Rome was last July, which should be peak tourist season, and it definitely was...people everywhere. I was hoping that April would be a slower season, since schools are not yet out, and European vacation season hasn't started. Well, even in April, there are still a lot of people there.
But then I suppose, it's because people like it.
...just next to the Forum Area and Colosseum.
One really amazing thing, is that there are carved reliefs everywhere, some almost 2000 years old. Of course many are broken or damaged, but many have detail that is still crisp and sharp, after all that time !
The other really incredible thing for me is the amazing complexity of buildings built 2000 years ago. You need to take a tour, with a good guide, to get an explanation of the history of the Colosseum. Used for its original purpose (gladiatorial spectacle) until about the year 580, the falling into disrepair, severely damaged in several earthquakes, and then, for maybe 1200 years or so, the area was treated like a big "quarry" where folks could go and drag out unbroken stones, and use them for their own houses.
But what is left is STILL very cool, and well worth a tour and a visit, as you can see several other folks were doing.
An enormous place, originally seating 70-80,000 people, with a complex area under the arena, where gladiators, wild animals and other victims of the spectacle assembled. Unbelievable.
And then there is the Pantheon. One of the earliest concrete dome buildings on the planet. Now stripped of its inner bronze decor, and its outer marble facade, both used to decorate buildings that were priorities for other rulers, it's still an amazing, beautiful place.
Then there's the Vatican...so many people, we didn't even attempt to get in there...maybe next time.
Next:
Venice
Y'all take care,
- Mark
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